4rafii& 


••v. 

JO' 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 


She  fell  at  my  feet,  senseless.      Page  98 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 


Bg 
ANNA  KATHARINE  GREEN 


Author  of 

The  Woman  in  the  Alcove 
The  Millionaire  Baby 
The  Filigree  Ball,  etc, 


With  Illustrations  by 
ALICE  BARBER  STEPHENS 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT  1907 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


APRIL 


. 


PRESS  OF 

BRAUNWORTH  <t  CO. 

BOOKBINDERS  AND  PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I  A  SPY'S  DUTY       ,       •  ,  ,  •.      ..  .     -.  ,  •  * 

II  QUESTIONS    .       .  r    .       .       .f      •  ,  -  14 

III  IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW      .       .       .  .  30 

IV  LIGHTS—  SOUNDS        -,       .       .       ,t  %  48 
V  THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR  .  64 

VI  AT  THE  STAIR-HEAD    .....      90 

VII  A  MOVING  SHADOW      .       .       .       .       .99 

VIII  THE  PARAGRAPH  .       .       ...       .114 

IX  SCRAPS          .......    123 

X  A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH          .       .       .136 
XI  BESS      ,       .       .       .       .       .       .       .165 

XII  SEARCHINGS         .       .       .       .       .       .177 

XIII  A  DISCOVERY        ......    188 

XIV  I  SEEK  HELP  .     .       .       .       .       .       .201 

XV  HARDLY  A  COINCIDENCE      ....    219 

XVI  IN  THE  LIBRARY  ...       .       .       ,    229 

XVII  THE  Two  WEIRD  SISTERS   .        .       .        .245 

XVIII  THE  MORNING  NEWS  270 


91S859 


CONTENTS-Ccm/mued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX  THE  CRY  FROM  THE  STAIRS         ...  284 

XX  EXPLANATION                                     .  287 

XXI  THE  CIPHER         .       .      '  *       .       .       .294 

XXII  MERCY 310 

XXIII  THE  WIFE'S  TALE     '.      //';>^'::?,i>  328 

XXIV  THE  SINS  OF  THE  FATHERS         .  ''••'.»•;    *.  346 
XXV  THE  FINGER  ON  THE  WALL         .       /     1  355 

XXVI  "BITTER  AS  THE  GRAVE"     .      ' !'     V      .    367 

XXVII  A  CHILD'S  PLAYTHINGS        .       .       .      *.    373 

XXVIII  RESTITUTION  382 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

CHAPTER  I 


I  am  not  without  self-control,  yet  when  Miss 
Davies  entered  the  room  with  that  air  of  im 
portance  she  invariably  assumes  when  she  has  an 
unusually  fine  position  to  offer,  I  could  not  hide  all 
traces  of  my  anxiety. 

I  needed  a  position,  needed  it  badly,  while  the 
others — 

But  her  eyes  are  on  our  faces,  she  is  scanning 
us  all  with  that  close  and  calculating  gaze  which 
lets  nothing  escape.  She  has  passed  me  by — my 
heart  goes  down,  down — when  suddenly  her  look 
returns  and  she  singles  me  out. 

"Miss  Saunders."  Then,  "I  have  a  word  to 
say  to  you." 

There  is  a  rustle  about  me ;  five  disappointed 
i 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

girls  sink  back  Into  their  scats  as  I  quickly  rise  and 
follow  Miss  Davies  out. 

In  the  hall  she  faced  me  with  these  words: 

"You  are  discreet,  and  you  evidently  desire  a 
position.  You  will  find  a  gentleman  in  my  sit 
ting-room.  If  you  come  to  terms  with  him,  well 
and  good.  If -not,  I  shall  expect  you  to  forget  all 
about  him  a\id  his  errand  the  moment  you  leave 
his  presence.  You  understand  me?" 

"I  think  so,"  I  replied,  meeting  her  steady  look 
with  one  equally  composed.  Part  of  my  strength 
— and  I  think  I  have  some  strength — lies  in  the 
fact  that  I  am  quietest  when  most  deeply  roused. 
"I  am  not  to  talk  whatever  the  outcome." 

"Not  even  to  me,"  she  emphasized. 

Stirred  still  further  and  therefore  outwardly 
even  more  calm  than  before,  I  stopped  her  as  she 
was  moving  on  and  ventured  a  single  query. 

"This  position — involving  secrecy — is  it  one 
you  would  advise  me  to  take,  even  if  I  did  not 
stand  in  need  of  it  so  badly?" 

"Yes.  The  difficulties  will  not  be  great  to  a 
2 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

discreet  person.    It  is  a  first-class  opportunity  for 
a  young  woman  as  experienced  as  yourself." 

"Thank  you,"  was  my  abrupt  but  grateful  re 
joinder;  and,  obeying  her  silent  gesture,  I  opened 
the  door  of  the  sitting-room  and  passed  in. 

A  gentleman  standing  at  one  of  the  windows 
turned  quickly  at  the  sound  of  my  step  and  came 
forward.  Instantly  whatever  doubt  I  may  have 
felt  concerning  the  nature  of  the  work  about  to 
be  proposed  to  me  yielded  to  the  certainty  that, 
however  much  it  might  involve  of  the  strange  and 
difficult,  the  man  whose  mission  it  was  to  seek 
my  aid  was  one  to  inspire  confidence  and  respect. 

He  was  also  a  handsome  man,  or  no,  I  will  not 
go  so  far  as  that ;  he  was  only  one  in  whom  the  lines 
of  form  and  visage  were  fine  enough  not  to  inter 
fere  with  the  impression  made  by  his  strong  nature 
and  intense  vitality.  A  man  to  sway  women  and 
also  quite  capable  of  moving  men  (this  was  evi 
dent  at  a  glance)  ;  but  a  man  under  a  cloud  just 
at  present, — a  very  heavy  cloud  which  both  irked 
and  perplexed  him. 

3 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Pausing  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  he  surveyed 
me  closely  for  an  instant  before  speaking.  Did  I 
impress  him  as  favorably  as  he  did  me?  I  soon 
had  reason  to  think  so,  for  the  nervous  trembling 
of  his  hands  ceased  after  the  first  moment  or  two 
of  silent  scrutiny,  and  I  was  sure  I  caught  the 
note  of  hope^in  his  voice  as  he  courteously  re 
marked  : 

"You  are  seeking  a  place,  young  lady,.  Do  you 
think  you  can  fill  the  one  I  have  to  offer?  It  has 
its  difficulties,  but  it  is  not  an  one^ds  one.  It  is 
that  of  companion  to  my  wife." 

I  bowed;  possibly  I  smiled.  I  4°  smile  some 
times  when  a  ray  of  real  sunshine  darts  across  my 
pathway. 

"I  should  be  very  glad  to  try  tuch  a  situation," 
I  replied. 

A  look  of  relief,  so  vivid  that  it  startled  me, 
altered  at  once  the  whole  character  of  his  coun 
tenance  ;  and  perceiving  how  intense  was  the  power 
and  fascination  underlying  his  quiet  exterior,  I 
asked  myself  who  and  what  this  man  was ;  no 

4 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

ordinary  personage,  I  was  sure,  but  who?  Had 
Miss  Davies  purposely  withheld  his  name?  I  be 
gan  to  think  so. 

"I  have  had  some  experience,"  I  was  proceed 
ing— 

But  he  waved  this  consideration  aside,  with  a 
change  back  to  his  former  gloomy  aspect,  and 
a  careful  glance  at  the  door  which  did  not  escape 
me. 

"It  is  not  experience  which  is  so  much  needed 
as — discretion." 

Again  that  word. 

c 

"The  case  is  not  a  common  one,  or,  rather," — ! 
He  caught  himself  up  quickly,  "the  circumstances 
are  not.  My  wife  is  well,  but — she  is  nof  happy. 
She  is  very  unhappy,  'deeply,  unaccountably  so, 
and  I  do  not  know  why." 

Anxious  to  watch  the  effect  of1  these  words,  he 
paused  a  momenf,  then  added  fervently: 

"Would  to  God  I  'did!  It  would  make  a  new 
man  of  me." 

The  meaning,  the  deep  meaning  in  his  tone,  if 
5 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

not  in  the  a'djuration  itself,  was  undeniable ;  but 
my  old  habit  of  self-control  stood  me  in  good  stead 
and  I  remained  silent  and  watchful,  weighing 
every  look  and  word. 

f  "A  week  ago  she  was  the  lightest  hearted  woman 
in  town, — the  happiest  wife,  the  merriest  mother. 
To-day  she  is  a  mere  wreck  of  her  former  self, — 
pallid,  drawn,  almost  speechless,  yet  she  is  not 
ill.  She  will  not  acknowledge  to  an  ache  or  a 
pain ;  will  not  even  admit  that  any  change  has 
taken  place  in  her.  But  you  have  only  to  see  her. 
'And  I  am  as  ignorant  of  the  cause  of  it  all — as 
you  are!"  he  burst  out. 

,  Still  I  remained  silent,  waiting,  watchful. 
;  "I  have  talked  with  her  physician.  He  says 
there  is  something  serious  the  matter  with  her,  but 
he  can  not  help  her,  as  it  is  not  in  any  respect 
physical,  and  advises  me  to  find  out  what  is  on 
her  mind.  As  if  that  had  not  been  my  first  care! 
I  have  also  consulted  her  most  intimate  friends — 
all  who  know  her  well,  but  they  can  give  me  no 
clue  to  her  distress.  They  see  the  difference  in 

6 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

her,  but  can  not  tell  the  cause.  And  I  am  obliged 
to  go  away  and  leave  her  in  this  state.  For  two 
weeks,  three  weeks  now,  my  movements  will  be  very 
uncertain.  I  am  at  the  beck  and  call  of  the  State 
Committee.  At  any  other  time  I  would  try  change 
of  scene,  but  she  will  neither  consent  to  leave  home 
without  me  nor  to  interrupt  my  plans  in  order 
that  I  may  accompany  her.  I " 

"Miss  Davies  has  not  told  me  your  name,"  I 
made  bold  to  interpolate. 

He  stared,  shook  himself  together,  and  quietly 
remarked : 

"I  am  Henry  Packard." 

The  city's  mayor!  and  not  only  that,  the  run 
ning  candidate  for  governor.  I  knew  him  well  by 
name,  even  if  I  did  not  know,  or  rather  had  not 
recognized  his  face. 

"I  beg  pardon,"  I  somewhat  tremulously  began, 
but  he  waved  the  coming  apology  aside  as  easily 
as  he  had  my  first  attempt  at  ingratiation.  In 
fact,  he  appeared  to  be  impatient  of  every  un 
necessary  word.  This  I  could,  in  a  dim  sort  of 

Z 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

way,  understand.  He  was  at  the  crisis  of  his  fate, 
and  so  was  his  party.  For  several  years  a  strug 
gle  had  gone  on  between  the  two  nearly  matched 
elements  in  this  western  city,  which,  so  far,  had 
resulted  in  securing  him  two  terms  of  office — pos 
sibly  because  his  character  appealed  to  men  of  all 
grades  and  varying  convictions.  But  the  opposite 
party  was  strong  in  the  state,  and  the  question 
whether  he  could  carry  his  ticket  against  such 
odds,  and  thus  give  hope  to  his  party  in  the  com 
ing  presidential  election,  was  one  yet  to  be  tested. 
Forceful  as  a  speaker,  he  was  expected  to  reap 
hundreds  of  votes  from  the  mixed  elements  that 
invariably  thronged  to  hear  him,  and,  ignorant  as 
I  necessarily  was  of  the  exigencies  of  such  a  cam 
paign,  I  knew  that  not  only  his  own  ambition,  but 
the  hopes  of  his  party,  depended  on  the  speeches 
he  had  been  booked  to  make  in  all  parts  of  the 
state.  And  now,  three  weeks  before  election,  while 
every  opposing  force  was  coming  to  the  surface, 
this  trouble  had  come  upon  him.  A  mystery  in 
his  home  and  threatened  death  in  his  heart!  For 

8 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

he  loved  his  wife — that  was  apparent  to  me  from 
the  first;  loved  her  to  idolatry,  as  such  men  some 
times  do  love, — often  to  their  own  undoing. 

All  this,  the  thought  of  an  instant.  Meanwhile 
he  had  been  studying  me  well. 

"You  understand  my  position,"  he  commented. 

"Wednesday  night  I  speak  in  C ,  Thursday 

in  R ,  while  she—"  With  an  effort  he  pulled 

himself  together.  "Miss — " 

"Saunders,"  I  put  in. 

"Miss  Saunders,  I  can  not  leave  her  alone  in  the 
house.  Some  one  must  be  there  to  guard  and 
watch — " 

"Has  she  no  mother?"  I  suggested  in  the  pause 
he  made. 

"She  has  no  living  relatives,  and  mine  are  un 
congenial  to  her." 

This  to  save  another  question.  I  understood 
him  perfectly. 

"I  can  not  ask  any  of  them  to  stay  with  her," 
he  pursued  decisively.  "She  would  not  consent  to 
it.  Nor  can  I  ask  any  of  her  friends.  That  sh^ 

9 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

does  not  wish,  either.  But  I  can  hire  a  com 
panion.  To  that  she  has  already  consented.  That 
she  will  regard  as  a  kindness,  if  the  lady  chosen 
should  prove  to  be  one  of  those  rare  beings  who 
carry  comfort  in  their  looks  without  obtruding 
their  services  or  displaying  the  extent  of  their  in 
terest.  You  know  there  are  some  situations  in 

/ 
which  the  presence  of  a   stranger  may  be   more 

grateful  than  that  of  a  friend.  Apparently,  my 
wife  feels  herself  so  placed  now." 

Here  his  eyes  again  read  my  face,  an  ordeal 
out  of  which  I  came  triumphant;  the  satisfac 
tion  he  evinced  rightly  indicated  his  mind. 

"Will  you  accept  the  position?"  he  asked.  "We 
have  one  little  child.  You  will  have  no  charge  of 
her,  save  as  you  may  wish  to  make  use  of  her  in 
reaching  the  mother." 

The  hint  conveyed  in  the  last  phrase  gave  me 
courage  to  say: 

"You  wish  me  to  reach  her?" 

"With  comfort,"  said  he. 

"And  if  in  doing  so  I  learn  her  trouble?" 
10 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

"You  will  win  my  eternal  gratitude  by  telling 
it  to  one  who  would  give  ten  years  of  his  life 
to  assuage  it." 

My  head  rose.  I  began  to  feel  that  my  next 
step  must  strike  solid  ground. 

"In  other  words — to  be  quite  honest — you  wish 
me  to  learn  her  trouble  if  I  can." 

"I  believe  you  can  be  trusted  to  do  so." 

"And  then  to  reveal  it  to  you?" 

"If  your  sense  of  duty  permits, — which  I  think 
it  will." 

I  might  have  uttered  in  reply,  "A  spy's  duty !" 
but  the  high-mindedness  of  his  look  forbade. 
Whatever  humiliation  his  wishes  put  upon  me, 
there  could  be  no  question  of  the  uprightness  of 
his  motives  regarding  his  wife. 

I  ventured  one  more  question. 

"How  far  shall  I  feel  myself  at  liberty  to  go  in 
this  attempt?" 

"As  far  as  your  judgment  approves  and  cir 
cumstances  seem  to  warrant.  I  know  that  you 
will  come  upon  nothing  dishonorable  to  her,  or 

ii 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

(detrimental  to  our  relations  as  husband  and  wife, 
in  this  secret  which  is  destroying  our  happiness. 
Her  affection  for  me  is  undoubted,  but  some 
thing — God  knows  what — has  laid  waste  her  life. 
To  find  and  annihilate  that  something  is  my  first 
and  foremost  duty.  It  does  not  fit  well  with  those 
other  duties  pressing  upon  me_from  the  political 
field,  does  it?  That  is  why  I  have  called  in  help. 
That  is  why  I  have  called  you  in." 

The  emphasis  was  delicately  but  sincerely  given. 
It  struck  my  heart  and  entered  it.  Perhaps  he 
had  calculated  upon  this.  If  so,  it  was  because 
he  knew  that  a  woman  like  myself  works  better 
when  her  feelings  are  roused. 

Answering  with  a  smile,  I  waited  patiently  while 
he  talked  terms  and  other  equally  necessary 
details,  then  dropping  all  these  considerations, 
somewhat  in  his  own  grand  manner,  I  made  this 
remark : 

"If  your  wife  likes  me,  which  very  possibly  she 
may  fail  to  do,  I  shall  have  a  few  questions  to  ask 
you  before  I  settle  down  to  my  duties.  Will  you 

12 


A  SPY'S  DUTY 

see  that  an  opportunity  is  given  me  for  doing 
this?" 

His  assent  was  as  frank  as  all  the  rest,  and 
the  next  moment  he  left  the  room. 

As  he  passed  out  I  heard  him  remark  to  Miss 
Davies : 

"I  expect  Miss  Saunders  at  my  house  before 
nightfall.  I  shall  reserve  some  minutes  between 
half -past  five  and  six  in  which  to  introduce  her  to 
Mrs.  Packard." 


CHAPTER  II 

QUESTIONS 

I  knew  all  the  current  gossip  about  Mrs.  Pack 
ard  before  I  had  parted  with  Miss  Davies.  Her 
story  was  a  simple  one.  Bred  in  the  West,  she 
nad  come,  immediately  after  her  mother's  death, 
to  live  with  that  mother's  brother  in  Detroit.  In 
doing  this  she  had  walked  into  a  fortune.  Her 
uncle  was  a  rich  man  and  when  he  died,  which 
was  about  a  year  after  her  marriage  with  Mr. 
Packard  and  removal  to  C ,  she  found  her 
self  the  recipient  of  an  enormous  legacy.  She 
was  therefore  a  woman  of  independent  means, — 
an  advantage  which,  added  to  personal  attractions 
of  a  high  order,  and  manners  at  once  dignified  and 
winning,  caused  her  to  be  universally  regarded  as 
a  woman  greatly  to  be  envied  by  all  who  appre 
ciated  a  well-founded  popularity. 

14 


QUESTIONS 

So  much  for  public  opinion.  It  differs  mate 
rially  from  that  just  given  me  by  her  husband. 

The  mayor  lived  on  Franklin  Street  in  a  quar 
ter  I  had  seldom  visited.  As  I  entered  this  once 
aristocratic  thoroughfare  from  Carlton  Avenue, 
I  was  struck  as  I  had  been  before  by  its  hetero 
geneous  appearance.  Houses  of  strictly  modern 
type  neighbored  those  of  a  former  period,  and  it 
was  not  uncommon  to  see  mansion  and  hovel  con 
fronting  each  other  from  the  opposite  side  of  the 
street.  Should  I  find  the  number  I  sought  at 
tached  to  one  of  the  crude,  unmeaning  dwellings 
I  was  constantly  passing,  or  to  one  of  mellower 
aspect  and  possibly  historic  association? 

I  own  that  I  felt  a  decided  curiosity  on  this 
point,  and  congratulated  myself  greatly  when  I 
had  left  behind  me  a  peculiarly  obnoxious  mon 
strosity  in  stone,  whose  imposing  proportions 
might  reasonably  commend  themselves  to  the  ne 
cessities,  if  not  to  the  taste,  of  the  city's  mayor. 

A  little  shop,  one  story  in  height  an'd  old  enough' 
for  its  simple  wooden  walls  to  cry  alou'd  for  paint, 

15 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

stood  out  from  the  middle  of  a  row  of  cheap 
brick  houses.  Directly  opposite  it  were  two  con 
spicuous  dwellings,  neither  of  them  new  and  one 
of  them  ancient  as  the  street  itself.  They  stood 
fairly  close  together,  with  an  alley  running  be 
tween.  From  the  number  I  had  now  reached  it 
was  evident  that  the  mayor  lived  in  one  of  these. 
Happily  it  was  in  the  fresher  and  more  inviting 
one.  As  I  noted  this,  I  paused  in  admiration  of 
its  spacious  front  and  imposing  doorway.  The 
latter  was  in  the  best  style  of  Colonial  architec 
ture,  and  though  raised  but  one  step  from  the 
walk,  was  so  distinguished  by  the  fan-tailed  light 
overhead  and  the  flanking  casements  glazed  with 
antique  glass,  that  I  felt  myself  carried  back  to 
the  days  when  such  domiciles  were  few  and  de 
noted  wealth  the  most  solid,  and  hospitality  the 
most  generous. 

A  light  wall,  painted  to  match  the  house,  ex 
tended  without  break  to  the  adjoining  building, 
a  structure  equal  to  the  other  in  age  and  dimen 
sions,  but  differing  in  all  other  respects  as  much 

16 


QUESTIONS 

as  neglect  and  misuse  could  make  it.  Gray  and 
forbidding,  it  towered  in  its  place,  a  perfect  foil 
to  the  attractive  dwelling  whose  single  step  I  now 
mounted  with  cheerful  composure. 

What  should  I  have  thought  if  at  that  mo 
ment  I  had  b«en  told  that  appearances  were  de 
ceitful,  and  that  there  were  many  persons  then 
living  who,  if  left  to  their  choice,  would  prefer 
life  in  the  dismal  walls  from  which  I  had  instinct 
ively  turned,  to  a  single  night  spent  in  the  prom 
ising  house  I  was  so  eager  to  enter. 

An  old  serving-man,  with  a  countenance  which 
struck  me  pleasantly  enough  at  the  time,  opened 
the  door  in  response  to  my  ring,  only  to  make 
instant  way  for  Mayor  Packard,  who  advance'd 
from  some  near-by  room  to  greet  me.  By  this 
thoughtful  attention  I  was  spared  the  embarrass 
ment  from  which  I  might  otherwise  have  suffered. 

His  few  words  of  greeting  set  me  entirely  at 
my  ease,  and  I  was  quite  ready  to  follow  him 
•when  a  moment  later  he  invited  me  to  meet  Mrs. 
Packard. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"I  can  not  promise  you  just  the  reception  you 
naturally  look  for,"  said  he,  as  he  led  me  around 
the  stairs  toward  an  opening  at  their  rear,  "but 
she's  a  kind  woman  and  can  not  but  be  struck  with 
your  own  kind  spirit  and  quiet  manner." 

Happily,  I  was  not  called  upon  to  answer,  for 
at  that  moment  the  door  swung  open  and  he  ush 
ered  me  into  a  room  flooded  brilliantly  with  the 
last  rays  of  the  setting  sun.  The  woman  who 
sat  in  its  glow  made  an  instant  and  permanent 
impression  upon  me.  No  one  could  look  intently 
upon  her  without  feeling  that  here  was  a  woman 
of  individuality  and  power,  overshadowed  at  pres 
ent  by  the  deepest  melancholy.  As  she  rose  and 
faced  us  I  decided  instantly  that  her  husband  had 
not  exaggerated  her  state  of  mind.  Emotion  of 
no  ordinary  nature  disturbed  the  lines  of  her 
countenance  and  robbed  her  naturally  fine  figure 
of  a  goodly  portion  of  its  dignity  and  grace;  and 
though  she  immediately  controlled  herself  and  as 
sumed  the  imposing  aspect  of  a  highly  trained 
woman,  ready,  if  not  eager,  to  welcome  an  intrud- 

18 


QUESTIONS 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

you,"  she  courteously  replied,  with  a  quick  turn 
toward  her  husband,  expressive  of  confidence,  and, 
as  I  thought,  of  love.  "I  dreaded  being  left 
alone." 

He  drew  a  deep  breath  of  relief;  we  both  did; 
then  we  talked  a  little,  after  which  Mayor  Pack 
ard  found  some  excuse  for  taking  me  from  the 
room. 

"Now  for  the  few  words  you  requested,"  said 
he;  and,  preceding  me  down  the  hall,  ha  led  me 
into  what  he  called  his  study. 

I  noted  one  thing,  and  only  one  thing,  on  enter 
ing  this  place.  That  was  the  presence  of  a 
young  man  who  sat  at  a  distant  table  reading 
and  making  notes.  But  as  Mayor  Packard  took 
no  notice  of  him,  knowing  and  expecting  him  to 
be  there,  no  doubt,  I,  with  a  pardonable  confu 
sion,  withdrew  my  eyes  from  the  handsomest  face 
I  had  ever  seen,  and,  noting  that  my  employer 
had  stopped  before  a  type-writer's  table,  I  took 
my  place  at  his  side,  without  knowing  very  well 
what  this  move  meant  or  what  he  expected  me  to 

do  there. 

20 


QUESTIONS 

I  was  not  long  left  in  doubt.  With  a  gesture 
toward  the  type-writer,  he  asked  me  if  I  was  ac 
customed  to  its  use;  and  when  I  acknowledged 
some  sort  of  acquaintance  with  it,  he  drew  an 
unanswered  letter  from  a  pile  on  the  table  and 
requested  me  to  copy  it  as  a  sample. 

I  immediately  sat  down  before  the  type-writer. 
I  was  in  something  of  a  maze,  but  felt  that  I 
must  follow  his  lead.  As  I  proceeded  to  insert 
the  paper  and  lay  out  the  copy  to  hand,  he  crossed 
over  to  the  young  man  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room  and  began  a  short  conversation  which  ended 
in  some  trivial  demand  that  sent  the  young  man 
from  the  room.  As  the  door  closed  behind  him 
Mayor  Packard  returned  to  my  side. 

"Keep  on  with  your  work  and  never  mind  mis 
takes,"  said  he.  "What  I  want  is  to  hear  the 
questions  you  told  me  to  expect  from  you  if  you 
stayed." 

Seemingly  Mayor  Packard  did  not  wish  this 
young  man  to  know  my  position  in  the  house. 
Was  it  possible  he  did  not  wholly  trust  him?  My 

21 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

hands  trembled  from  the  machine  and  I  was  about 
to  turn  and  give  my  full  thought  to  what  I  had 
to  say.  But  pride  checked  the  impulse.  "No," 
I  muttered  in  quick  dissuasion,  to  myself.  "He 
must  see  that  I  can  do  two  things  at  once  and 
do  both  well."  And  so  I  went  on  with  the  letter. 

"When,"  I  asked,  "did  you  first  see  the  change 
in  Mrs.  Packard?" 

"On    Tuesday    afternoon    at   about   this    time." 

"What  had  happened  on  that  day?  Had  she 
been  out?" 

"Yes,  I  think  she  told  me  later  that  she  had 
been  out." 

"Do  you  know  where?" 

"To  some  concert,  I  believe.  I  did  not  press 
her  with  questions,  Miss  Saunders;  I  am  a  poor 
inquisitor." 

Click,  click ;  the  machine  was  working  admira 
bly. 

"Have  you  reason  to  think,"  I  now  demanded, 
"that  she  brought  her  unhappiness  in  with  her 
when  she  returned  from  that  concert?" 

22 


QUESTIONS 

"No;  for  when  I  returned  home  myself,  as  I 
'did  earlier  than  usual  that  night,  I  heard  her 
laughing  with  the  child  in  the  nursery.  It  was 
afterward,  some  few  minutes  afterward,  that  I 
came  upon  her  sitting  in  such  a  daze  of  misery 
that  she  did  not  recognize  me  when  I  spoke  to 
her.  I  thought  it  was  a  passing  mood  at  the  time ; 
she  is  a  sensitive  woman  and  she  had  been  read 
ing — I  saw  the  book  lying  on  the  floor  at  her 
side;  but  when,  having  recovered  from  her  dejec 
tion — a  dejection,  mind  you,  which  she  would 
neither  acknowledge  nor  explain — she  accom 
panied  me  out  to  dinner,  she  showed  even  more 
feeling  on  our  return,  shrinking  unaccountably 
from  leaving  the  carriage  and  showing,  not  only 
in  this  way  but  in  others,  a  very  evident  distaste 
to  reenter  her  own  house.  Now,  whatever  hold 
I  still  retain  upon  her  is  of  so  slight  a  nature  that 
I  am  afraid  every  day  she  will  leave  me." 

"Leave  you!" 

My  fingers  paused;  my  astonishment  had   got 
the  better  of  me. 

23  i 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Yes;  it  is  as  bad  as  that.  I  don't  know  what 
day  you  will  send  me  a  telegram  of  three  words, 
'She  has  gone.'  Yet  she  loves  me,  really  and 
truly  loves  me.  That  is  the  mystery  of  it.  More 
than  this,  her  very  heart-strings  are  knit  up  with 
those  of  our  child." 

"Mayor  Packard," — I  had  resumed  work, — "was 
any  letter  delivered  to  her  that  day?" 

"That  I  can  not  say." 

Fact  one  for  me  to  establish. 

"The  wives  of  men  like  you — men  much  before 
the  world,  men  in  the  thick  of  strife,  social  and 
political — often  receive  letters  of  a  very  threaten 
ing  character." 

"She  would  have  shown  me  any  such,  if  only  to 
put  me  on  my  guard.  She  is  physically  a  very 
brave  woman  and  not  at  all  nervous." 

"Those  letters  sometimes  assume  the  shape  of 
calumny.  Your  character  may  have  been  at 
tacked." 

"She  believes  in  my  character  and  would  have 
given  me  an  opportunity  to  vindicate  myself.  I 

24 


QUESTIONS 

have  every  confidence  in  my  wife's  sense  of  jus 
tice." 

I  experienced  a  thrill  of  admiration  for  the 
appreciation  he  evinced  in  those  words.  Yet  I 
pursued  the  subject  resolutely. 

"Have  you  an  enemy,  Mayor  Packard?  Any 
real  and  downright  enemy  capable  of  a  deep  and 
serious  attempt  at  destroying  your  happiness?" 

"None  that  I  know  of,  Miss  Saunders.  I  have 
political  enemies,  of  course — men  who,  influenced 
by  party  feeling,  are  not  above  attacking  methods 
and  possibly  my  official  reputation ;  but  personal 
ones — wretches  willing  to  stab  me  in  my  home- 
life  and  affections,  that  I  can  not  believe.  My 
life  has  been  as  an  open  book.  I  have  harmed 
no  man  knowingly  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  no  man 
has  ever  cherished  a  wish  to  injure  me." 

"Who  constitute  your  household?  How  many 
servants  do  you  keep  and  how  long  have  they  been 
with  you?" 

"Now  you  exact  details  with  which  only  Mrs. 
Packard  is  conversant.  I  don't  know  anything 
25 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

about  the  servants.  I  do  not  interest  myself  much 
in  matters  purely  domestic,  and  Mrs.  Packard 
spares  me.  You  will  have  to  observe  the  servants 
yourself." 

I  made  another  note  in  my  mind  while  inquir 
ing: 

"Who  is  the  young  man  who  was  here  just  now? 
He  has  an  uncommon  face." 

"A  handsome  one,  do  you  mean?" 

"Yes,  and — well,  what  I  should  call  distinctly 
clever." 

"He  is  clever.  My  secretary,  Miss  Saunders. 
He  helps  me  in  my  increased  duties;  has,  in  a 
way,  charge  of  my  campaign;  reads,  sorts  and 
sometimes  answers  my  letters.  Just  now  he  is 
arranging  my  speeches — fitting  them  to  the  local 
requirements  of  the  several  audiences  I  shall  be 
called  upon  to  address.  He  knows  mankind  like 
a  book.  I  shall  never  give  the  wrong  speech  to 
the  wrong  people  while  he  is  with  me," 

"Do  you  like  him? — the  man,  I  mean,  not  his 
work." 

26 


QUESTIONS 

"Well — yes.  He  is  very  good  company,  or 
would  have  been  if,  in  the  week  he  has  been  in 
the  house,  I  had  been  in  better  mood  to  enjoy 
him.  He's  a  capital  story-teller." 

"He  has  been  here  a  week?" 

"Yes,  or  almost." 

"Came  on  last  Tuesday,  didn't  he?" 

"Yes,  I  believe  that  was  the  day." 

"Toward  afternoon?" 

"No ;  he  came  early ;  soon  after  breakfast,  in 
fact." 

"Does  your  wife  like  him?" 

His  Honor  gave  a  start,  flushed  (I  can  some 
times  see  a  great  deal  even  while  very  busily  oc 
cupied)  and  answered  without  anger,  but  with  a 
good  deal  of  pride : 

"I  doubt  if  Mrs.  Packard  more  than  knows  of 
his  presence.  She  does  not  come  to  this  room." 

"And  he  does  not  sit  at  your  table?" 

"No;  I  must  have  some  few  minutes  in  the 
day  free  from  the  suggestion  of  politics.  Mr. 
Steele  can  safely  be  left  out  of  our  discussion. 
He  does  not  even  sleep  in  the  house." 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

The  note   I  made  at  this  was  very   emphatic. 

"You  should  know,"  said  I;  then  quickly: 
"Tuesday  was  the  day  Mrs.  Packard  first  showed 
the  change  you  observed  in  her." 

"Yes,  I  think  so;  but  that  is  a  coincidence 
only.  She  takes  no  interest  in  this  young  man; 
scarcely  noticed  him  when  I  introduced  him;  just 
bowed  to  him  over  her  shoulder ;  she  was  fastening 
on  our  little  one's  cap.  Usually  she  is  extremely 
courteous  to  strangers,  but  she  was  abstracted,  posi 
tively  abstracted  at  that  moment.  I  wondered  at 
it,  for  he  usually  makes  a  stir  wherever  he  goes.  But 
my  wife  carea  little  for  beauty  in  a  man ;  I  doubt 
if  she  noticed  his  looks  at  all.  She  did  not  catch  his 
name,  I  remember." 

"Pardon  me — what  is  that  you  say?" 

"She  did  not  catch  his  name,  for  later  she  asked 
me  what  it  was." 

"Tell  me  about  that,  Mr.  Packard." 

"It  is  immaterial ;  but  I  am  ready  to  answer  all 
your  questions.  It  was  while  we  were  out  dining. 
Chance  threw  us  together,  and  to  fill  up  the  mo- 

28 


QUESTIONS 

ment  she  asked  the  name  of  the  young  man  I 
had  brought  into  the  library  that  morning.  I  told 
her  and  explained  his  position  and  the  long  train 
ing  he  had  had  in  local  politics.  She  listened, 
but  not  as  closely  as  she  did  to  the  music.  Oh, 
she  takes  no  interest  in  him.  I  wish  she  did;  his 
stories  might  amuse  her." 

I  did  not  pursue  the  subject.  Taking  out  the 
letter  I  had  been  writing,  I  held  it  out  for  his 
inspection,  with  the  remark: 

"More  copy,  please,  Mayor  Packard." 


29 


CHAPTER  III 

IN    THE    GABLE    WINDOW 

A  few  minutes  later  I  was  tripping  up-stairs 
in  the  wake  of  a  smart  young  maid  whom  Mayor 
Packard  had  addressed  as  Ellen.  I  liked  this  girl 
at  first  sight  and,  as  I  followed  her  up  first  one 
flight,  then  another,  to  the  room  which  had  been 
chosen  for  me,  the  hurried  glimpses  I  had  of 
her  bright  and  candid  face  suggested  that  in  this 
especial  member  of  the  household  I  might  hope  to 
find  a  friend  and  helper  in  case  friendship  and 
help  were  needed  in  the  blind  task  to  which  I  stood 
committed.  But  I  soon  saw  cause — or  thought  I 
idid — to  change  this  opinion.  When  she  turned  on 
me  at  the  door  of  my  room,  a  small  one  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the  third  floor,  I  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  meeting  her  eyes.  The  interest  in  her 
look  was  not  the  simple  one  to  be  expected.  In 
another  person  in  other  circumstances  I  should 

30 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

Have  characterized  her  glance  as  one  of  inquiry 
and  wonder.  But  neither  inquiry  nor  wonder  de 
scribed  the  present  situation,  and  I  put  myself 
upon  my  guard. 

Seeing  me  look  her  way,  she  flushed,  and,  throw 
ing  wide  the  door,  remarked  in  the  pleasantest 
of  tones: 

"This  is  your  room.  Mrs.  Packard  says  that 
if  it  is  not  large  enough  or  does  not  seem  pleasant 
to  you,  she  will  find  you  another  one  to-morrow." 
"It's  very  pleasant  and  quite  large  enough," 
I  confidently  replied,  after  a  hasty  look  about 
me.  "I  could  not  be  more  comfortable." 

She  smiled,  a  trifle  broadly  for  the  occasion,  I 
thought,  and  patted  a  pillow  here  and  twitched 
a  curtain  there,  as  she  remarked  with  a  certain 
emphasis : 

"I'm  sure  you  will  be  comfortable.  There's 
nobody  else  on  this  floor  but  Letty  and  the  baby, 
but  you  don't  look  as  if  you  would  be  easily 
frightened." 

Astonished,  not  so  much  by  her  words  as  by 
31 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

the  furtive  look  she  gave  me,  I  laughed  as  I  re 
peated  : 

"Frightened?     What  should  frighten  me?" 

"Oh,  nothing."  Her  back  was  to  me  now,  but 
I  felt  that  I  knew  her  very  look.  "Nothing,  of 
course.  If  you're  not  timid  you  won't  mind  sleep 
ing  so  far  away  from  every  one.  Then,  we  are 
always  within  call.  The  attic  door  is  just  a  few 
steps  off.  We'll  leave  it  unlocked  and  you  can 
come  up  if — if  you  feel  like  it  at  any  time.  We'll 
understand." 

Understand !  I  eyed  her  as  she  again  looked 
my  way,  with  some  of  her  own  curiosity  if  not 
wonder. 

"Mrs.  Packard  must  have  had  some  very  timor 
ous  guests,"  I  observed.  "Or,  perhaps,  you  have 
had  experiences  here  which  have  tended  to  alarm 
you.  The  house  is  so  large  and  imposing  for  the 
quarter  it  is  in  I  can  readily  imagine  it  to  attract 
burglars." 

"Burglars!  It  would  be  a  brave  burglar  who 
would  try  to  get  in  here.  I  guess  you  never  heard 

about  this  house." 

32 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

"No,"  I  admitted,  unpleasantly  divided  between 
a  wish  to  draw  her  out  and  the  fear  of  betraying 
Mayor  Packard's  trust  in  me  by  showing  the  ex 
tent  of  my  interest. 

"Well,  it's  only  gossip,"  she  laughingly  as 
sured  me.  "You  needn't  think  of  it,  Miss.  I'm 
sure  you'll  be  all  right.  We  girls  have  been,  so 
far,  and  Mrs,  Packard — " 

Here  she  doubtless  heard  a  voice  outside  or 
some  summons  from  below,  for  she  made  a  quick 
start  toward  the  door,  remarking  in  a  different 
and  very  pleasant  tone  of  voice : 

"Dinner  at  seven,  Miss.  There'll  be  no  extra 
company  to-night.  I'm  coming."  This  to  some 
one  in  the  hall  as  she  hastily  passed  through  the 
door. 

Dropping  the  bag  I  had  lifted  to  unpack,  I 
stared  at  the  door  which  had  softly  closed  under 
her  hand,  then,  with  an  odd  impulse,  turned  to 
look  at  my  own  face  in  the  glass  before  which 
I  chanced  to  be  standing.  Did  I  expect  to  find 
there  some  evidence  of  the  excitement  which  this 
33 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

strange  conversation  might  naturally  produce  in 
one  already  keyed  up  to  an  expectation  of  the 
mysterious  and  unusual?  If  so,  I  was  not 
disappointed.  My  features  certainly  betrayed  the 
effect  of  this  unexpected  attack  upon  my  profes 
sional  equanimity.  What  did  the  girl  mean? 
What  was  she  hinting  at?  What  underlay — what 
could  underlie  her  surprising  remark,  "I  guess  you 
never  heard  about  this  house."  Something  worth 
my  knowing;  something  which  might  explain 
Mayor  Packard's  fears  and  Mrs.  Packard's — 

There  I  stopped.  It  was  where  the  girl  had 
stopped.  She  and  not  I  must  round  out  this  un 
completed  sentence. 

Meanwhile  I  occupied  myself  in  unpacking  my 
two  bags  and  making  acquaintance  with  the  room 
which,  I  felt,  was  destined  to  be  the  scene  of  many 
anxious  thoughts.  Its  first  effect  had  been  a  cheer 
ful  one,  owing  to  its  two  large  windows,  one  look 
ing  out  on  a  stretch  of  clear  sky  above  a  mass  of 
low,  huddled  buildings,  and  the  other  on  the  wall 
of  the  adjacent  house  which,  though  near  enough 

34 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

to  obstruct  the  view,  was  not  near  enough  to  ex 
clude  all  light.  Another  and  closer  scrutiny  of 
the  room  did  not  alter  the  first  impression.  To 
the  advantages  of  light  were  added  those  of  dain 
ty  furnishing  and  an  exceptionally  pleasing  color 
scheme.  There  was  no  richness  anywhere,  but  an 
attractive  harmony  which  gave  one  an  instantane 
ous  feeling  of  home.  From  the  little  brass  bed 
stead  curtained  with  cretonne,  to  the  tiny  desk 
filled  with  everything  needful  for  immediate  use, 
I  saw  evidences  of  the  most  careful  housekeeping, 
and  was  vainly  asking  myself  what  could  have 
come  into  Mrs.  Packard's  life  to  disturb  so  whole 
some  a  nature,  when  my  attention  was  arrested  by 
a  picture  hanging  at  the  right  of  the  window 
overlooking  the  next  house. 

It  gave  promise  of  being  a  most  interesting 
sketch,  and  I  crossed  over  to  examine  it;  but 
instead  of  doing  so,  found  my  eyes  drawn  toward 
something  more  vital  than  any  picture  and  twice 
as  enchaining. 

It  was  a  face,  the  face  of  an  old  woman  staring 
35 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

down  at  me  from  a  semicircular  opening  in  the 
gable  of  the  adjoining  house.  An  ordinary  circum 
stance  in  itself,  but  made  extraordinary  by  the 
fixity  of  her  gaze,  which  was  leveled  straight  on 
mine,  and  the  uncommon  expression  of  breathless 
eagerness  which  gave  force  to  her  otherwise  com 
monplace  features.  So  remarkable  was  this  expres 
sion  and  so  apparently  was  it  directed  against 
myself,  that  I  felt  like  throwing  up  my  window  and 
asking  the  poor  old  creature  what  I  could  do  for 
her.  But  her  extreme  immobility  deterred  me.  For 
all  the  intentness  of  her  look  there  was  no  invita 
tion  in  it  warranting  such  an  advance  on  my  part. 
She  simply  stared  down  at  me  in  unbroken  anxiety, 
nor,  though  I  watched  her  for  some  minutes  with 
an  intensity  equal  to  her  own,  did  I  detect  any 
change  either  in  her  attitude  or  expression. 

"Odd,"  thought  I,  and  tested  her  with  a  friend 
ly  bow. 

The  demonstration  failed  to  produce  the  least 
impression. 

"A   most   uncanny   neighbor,"   was   my   mental 

36 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

comment  on  finally  turning  away.  Truly  I  was 
surrounded  by  mysteries,  but  fortunately  this  was 
one  with  which  I  had  no  immediate  concern. 

It  did  not  take  me  long  to  put  away  my  few 
belongings  and  prepare  for  dinner.  When  quite 
ready,  I  sat  down  to  write  a  letter.  This  com 
pleted,  I  turned  to  go  down-stairs.  But  before 
leaving  the  room  I  cast  another  look  up  at  my 
neighbor's  attic  window.  The  old  woman  was  still 
there.  As  our  glances  met  I  experienced  a  thrill 
which  was  hardly  one  of  sympathy,  yet  was  not 
exactly  one  of  fear.  My  impulse  was  to  pull  down 
the  shade  between  us,  but  I  had  not  the  heart. 
She  was  so  old,  so  feeble  and  so  evidently  the  prey 
of  some  strange  and  fixed  idea.  What  idea?  It 
was  not  for  me  to  say,  but  I  found  it  impossible 
to  make  any  move  which  would  seem  to  shut  her 
out;  so  I  left  the  shade  up;  but  her  image  fol 
lowed  me  and  I  forgot  it  only  when  confronted 
once  again  with  Mrs.  Packard. 

That  lady  was  awaiting  me  at  the  dining-room 
door.  She  had  succeeded  in  throwing  off  her  secret 

37 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Depression  and  smiled  quite  naturally  as  I  ap 
proached.  Her  easy,  courteous  manners  became 
her  wonderfully.  I  immediately  recognized  how 
much  there  was  to  admire  in  our  mayor's  wife, 
and  quite  understood  his  relief  when,  a  few  min 
utes  later,  we  sat  at  table  and  conversation  began. 
Mrs.  Packard,  when  free  and  light-hearted,  was 
a  delightful  companion  and  the  meal  passed  off 
cheerily.  When  we  rose  and  the  mayor  left  us 
for  some  necessary  business  it  was  with  a  look 
of  satisfaction  in  my  direction  which  was  the  best 
possible  preparation  for  my  approaching  tete-a- 
tete  with  his  moody  and  incomprehensible  wife. 

But  I  was  not  destined  to  undergo  the  con 
templated  ordeal  this  evening.  Guests  were  an 
nounced  whom  Mrs.  Packard  kindly  invited  me  to 
meet,  but  I  begged  to  be  allowed  to  enjoy  the 
library.  I  had  too  much  to  consider  just  now,  to 
find  any  pleasure  in  society.  Three  questions  filled 
my  mind. 

What  was  Mrs.  Packard's  secret  trouble? 

Why  were  people  afraid  to  remain  in  this  house? 

38 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

Why  did  the  old  woman  next  door  show  such 
interest  in  the  new  member  of  her  neighbor's 
household  ? 

Would  a  single  answer  cover  all?  Was  there 
but  one  cause  for  each  and  every  one  of  these 
peculiarities?  Probably,  and  it  was  my  duty  to 
ferret  out  this  cause.  But  how  should  I  begin? 
I  remembered  what  I  had  read  about  detectives 
and  their  methods,  but  the  help  I  thus  received 
was  small.  Subtler  methods  were  demanded  here 
and  subtler  methods  I  must  find.  Meantime,  I 
would  hope  for  another  talk  with  Mayor  Packard. 
He  might  clear  up  some  of  this  fog.  At  least, 
I  should  like  to  give  him  the  opportunity.  But 
I  saw  no  way  of  reaching  him  at  present.  Even 
Mrs.  Packard  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  disturb 
him  in  his  study.  I  must  wait  for  his  reappear 
ance,  and  in  the  meantime  divert  myself  as  best 
I  could.  I  caught  up  a  magazine,  but  speedily 
'dropped  it  to  cast  a  quick  glance  around  the  room. 
Had  I  heard  anything?  No.  The  house  was 
perfectly  still,  save  for  the  sound  of  conversation 
39 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

in  the  drawing-room.  Yet  I  found  it  hard  to 
keep  my  eyes  upon  the  page.  Quite  without  my 
volition  they  flew,  first  to  one  corner,  then  to 
another.  The  room  was  light,  there  were  no 
shadowy  nooks  in  it,  yet  I  felt  an  irresistible  de 
sire  to  peer  into  every  place  not  directly  under  my 
eye.  I  knew  it  to  be  folly,  and,  after  succumb 
ing  to  the  temptation  of  taking  a  sly  look  behind 
a  certain  tall  screen,  I  resolutely  set  myself  to 
curb  my  restlessness  and  to  peruse  in  good  earnest 
the  article  I  had  begun.  To  make  sure  of  myself, 
I  articulated  each  word  aloud,  and  to  my  exceed 
ing  satisfaction  had  reached  the  second  column 
when  I  found  my  voice  trailing  off  into  silence, 
and  every  sense  alarmingly  alert.  Yet  there  was 
nothing,  absolutely  nothing  in  this  well-lighted, 
cozy  family-room  to  awaken  fear.  I  was  sure  of 
this  the  next  minute,  and  felt  correspondingly 
irritated  with  myself  and  deeply  humiliated.  That 
my  nerves  should  play  me  such  a  trick  at  the 
very  outset  of  my  business  in  this  house!  That 
I  could  not  be  left  alone,  with  life  in  every  part 

40 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

of  the  house,  and  the  sound  of  the  piano  and 
cheerful  talking  just  across  the  hall,  without  the 
sense  of  the  morbid  and  unearthly  entering  my 
matter-of-fact  brain! 

Uttering  an  ejaculation  of  contempt,  I  reseated 
myself.  The  impulse  came  again  to  look  behind 
me,  but  I  mastered  it  this  time  without  too  great 
an  effort.  I  already  knew  every  feature  of  the 
room:  its  old-fashioned  mantel,  large  round  cen 
ter-table,  its  couches  and  chairs,  and  why  should 
I  waste  my  attention  again  upon  them? 

"Is  there  anything  you  wish,  Miss?"  asked  a 
voice  directly  over  my  shoulder. 

I  wheeled  about  with  a  start.  I  had  heard  no 
one  approach;  it  was  not  sound  which  had  dis 
turbed  me. 

"The  library  bell  rang,"  continued  the  voice. 
"Is  it  ice-water  you  want?" 

Then  I  saw  that  it  was  Nixon,  the  butler,  and 

shook  my  head  in  mingled  anger  and  perplexity; 

for  not  only  had  he  advanced  quite  noiselessly,  but 

he  was  looking  at  me  with  that  curious  concentrated 

41 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

gaze  which  I  had  met  twice  before  since  coming 
into  this  house. 

"I  need  nothing,*'  said  I,  with  all  the  mildness 
I  could  summon  into  my  voice;  and  did  not  know 
whether  to  like  or  not  like  the  quiet  manner  in 
which  he  sidled  out  of  the  room. 

"Why  do  they  all  look  at  me  so  closely?"  I 
queried,  in  genuine  confusion.  "The  man  had  no 
business  here.  I  did  not  ring,  and  I  don't  be 
lieve  he  thought  I  did.  He  merely  wanted  to 
see  what  I  was  doing  and  whether  I  was  enjoying 
myself.  Why  this  curiosity?  I  have  never  roused 
it  anywhere  else.  It  is  not  myself  they  are  inter 
ested  in,  but  the  cause  and  purpose  of  my  pres 
ence  under  this  roof."  I  paused  to  wonder  over 
the  fact  that  the  one  member  of  the  family  who 
might  be  supposed  to  resent  my  intrusion  most 
was  the  one  who  took  it  most  kindly  and  with 
least  token  of  surprise — Mrs.  Packard. 

"She  accepts  me  easily  enough,"  thought  I. 
"To  her  I  am  a  welcome  companion.  What  am 
I  to  these?" 

42 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

The  answer,  or  rather  a  possible  answer,  came 
speedily.  At  nine  o'clock  Mayor  Packard  entered 
the  room  from  his  study  across  the  hall,  and,  see 
ing  me  alone,  came  forward  briskly. 

"Mrs.  Packard  has  company  and  I  am  on  my 
way  to  the  drawing-room,  but  I  am  happy  to  have 
the  opportunity  of  assuring  you  that  already  she 
looks  better,  and  that  I  begin  to  hope  that  your 
encouraging  presence  may  stimulate  her  to  throw 
aside  her  gloom  and  needless  apprehensions .x  I 
shall  be  eternally  grateful  to  you  if  it  will.  It 
is  the  first  time  in  a  week  that  she  has  consented 
to  receive  visitors." 

I  failed  to  feel  the  same  elation  over  this  pos 
sibly  temporary  improvement  in  his  wife's  con 
dition,  but  I  carefully  refrained  from  betraying 
my  doubts.  On  the  contrary,  I  took  advantage 
of  the  moment  to  clear  my  mind  of  one  of  the 
many  perplexities  'disturbing  it. 

"And  I  am  glad  of  this  opportunity  to  ask  you 
what  may  seem  a  foolish,  if  not  impertinent  ques 
tion.  The  maid,  Ellen,  in  showing  me  my  room, 
43 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

was  very  careful  to  assure  me  that  she  slept  near 
me  and  would  let  me  into  her  room  in  case  I 
experienced  any  alarm  in  the  night;  and  when  I 
showed  surprise  at  her  expecting  me  to  feel  alarm 
of  any  kind  in  a  house  full  of  people,  made  the 
remark,  'I  guess  you  do  not  know  about  this 
house.'  Will  you  pardon  me  if  I  ask  if  there  is 
anything  I  don't  know,  and  should  know,  about 
the  home  your  suffering  wife  inhabits?  A  prob 
lem  such  as  you  have  given  me  to  solve  demands 
a  thorough  understanding  of  every  cause  capable 
of  creating  disturbance  in  a  sensitive  mind." 

The  mayor's  short  laugh  failed  to  hide  his  an 
noyance. 

"You  will  find  nothing  in  this  direction,"  said 
he,  "to  account  for  the  condition  I  have  mentioned 
to  you.  Mrs.  Packard  is  utterly  devoid  of  super 
stition.  That  I  made  sure  of  before  signing  the 
lease  of  this  old  house.  But  I  forgot;  you  are 
(doubtless  ignorant  of  its  reputation.  It  has,  or 
rather  has  had,  the  name  of  being  haunted.  Ri 
diculous,  of  course,  but  a  fact  with  which  Mrs. 

44 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

Packard  has  had  to  contend  in" — he  gave  me  a 
quick  glance — "in  hiring  servants." 

It  was  now  my  turn  to  smile,  but  somehow  I 
did  not.  A  vision  had  risen  in  my  mind  of  that 
blank  and  staring  face  in  the  attic  window  next 
door,  and  I  felt — well,  I  don't  know  how  I  felt, 
but  I  did  not  smile. 

Another  short  laugh  escaped  him. 

"We  have  not  been  favored  by  any  manifesta 
tions  from  the  spiritual  world.  This  has  proved 
a  very  matter-of-fact  sort  of  home  for  us.  I  had 
almost  forgotten  that  it  was  burdened  with  such 
an  uncanny  reputation,  and  I'm  sure  that  Mrs. 
Packard  would  have  shared  my  indifference  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  domestic  difficulty  I  have 
mentioned.  It  took  us  two  weeks  to  secure  help 
of  any  kind." 

"Indeed!  and  how  long  have  you  been  in  the 
house?  I  judge  that  you  rent  it?" 

"Yes,  we  rent  it  and  we  have  been  here  two 
months.  It  was  the  only  house  I  could  get  in  a 
locality  convenient  for  me;  besides,  the  old  place 

45 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

suits  me.  It  would  take  more  than  an  obsolete 
ghost  or  so  to  scare  me  away  from  what  I  like." 

"But  Mrs.  Packard?  She  may  not  be  a  super 
stitious  woman,  yet — ** 

"Don't  be  fanciful,  Miss  Saunders.  You  will 
have  to  look  deeper  than  that  for  the  spell  which 
has  been  cast  over  my  wife.  Olympia  afraid  of 
creaks  and  groans?  Olympia  seeing  sights? 
She's  much  too  practical  by  nature,  Miss  Saun 
ters,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  she  would 
certainly  have  confided  her  trouble  to  me,  had  her 
imagination  been  stirred  in  this  way.  Little 
things  have  invariably  been  discussed  between  us. 
I  repeat  that  this  possibility  should  not  give  you 
a  moment's  thought." 

A  burst  of  sweet  singing  came  from  the  draw 
ing-room. 

"That's  her  voice,"  he  cried.  "Whatever  her 
trouble  may  be  she  has  forgotten  it  for  the  mo 
ment.  Excuse  me  if  I  join  her.  It  is  such  pleas 
ure  to  have  her  at  all  like  herself  again." 

I  longed  to  detain  him,  longed  to  put  some  of 

46 


IN  THE  GABLE  WINDOW 

the  numberless  questions  my  awakened  curiosity 
demanded,  but  his  impatience  was  too  marked  and 
I  let  him  depart  without  another  word. 

But  I  was  not  satisfied.  Inwardly  I  determined 
to  see  him  again  as  soon  as  possible  and  gain  a 
more  definite  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  his 
home. 


47 


CHAPTER  IV 

LIGHTS SOUNDS 

I  am  by  nature  a  thoroughly  practical  woman. 
If  I  had  not  been,  the  many  misfortunes  of  my 
life  would  have  made  me  so.  Yet,  when  the  li 
brary  door  closed  behind  the  mayor  and  I  found 
myself  again  alone  in  a  spot  where  I  had  not  felt 
comfortable  from  the  first,  I  experienced  an  odd 
sensation  not  unlike  fear.  It  left  me  almost  immedi 
ately  and  my  full  reasoning  powers  reasserted  them 
selves;  but  the  experience  had  been  mine  and  I 
could  not  smile  it  away. 

The  result  was  a  conviction,  which  even  reason 
could  not  dispel,  that  whatever  secret  tragedy  or 
wrong  had  signalized  this  house,  its  perpetration 
had  taken  place  in  this  very  room.  It  was  a 
fancy,  but  it  held,  and  under  its  compelling  if 
irrational  influence,  I  made  a  second  and  still  more 
minute  survey  of  the  room  to  which  this  convic 
tion  had  imparted  so  definite  an  interest. 

48 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

I  found  it  just  as  ordinary  and  unsuggestive  as 
before;  an  old-fashioned,  square  apartment  reno 
vated  and  redecorated  to  suit  modern  tastes.  Its 
furnishings  I  have  already  described;  they  were 
such  as  may  be  seen  in  any  comfortable  abode. 
I  did  not  linger  over  them  a  moment ;  besides, 
they  were  the  property  of  the  present  tenant,  and 
wholly  disconnected  with  the  past  I  was  insensibly 
considering.  Only  the  four  walls  and  what  they 
held,  doors,  windows  and  mantel-piece,  remained 
to  speak  of  those  old  days.  Of  the  doors  there 
were  two,  one  opening  into  the  main  hall  under 
the  stairs,  the  other  into  a  cross  corridor  separat 
ing  the  library  from  the  dining-room.  It  was 
through  the  dining-room  door  Nixon  had  come 
when  he  so  startled  me  by  speaking  unexpectedly 
over  my  shoulder!  The  two  windows  faced  the 
main  door,  as  did  the  ancient,  heavily  carved  man 
tel.  I  could  easily  imagine  the  old-fashioned 
shutters  hidden  behind  the  modern  curtains,  and, 
being  anxious  to  test  the  truth  of  my  imaginings, 
rose  and  pulled  aside  one  of  these  curtains  only; 
49 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to  see,  just  as  I  expected,  the  blank  surface  of  a 
series  of  unslattcd  shutters,  tightly  fitting  one  to 
another  with  old-time  exactitude.  A  flat  hook  and 
staple  fastened  them.  Gently  raising  the  window 
and  lifting  one,  I  pulled  the  shutter  open  and 
looked  out.  The  prospect  was  just  what  I  had 
been  led  to  expect  from  the  location  of  the  room — 
the  long,  bare  wall  of  the  neighboring  house.  I 
was  curious  about  that  house,  more  curious  at 
this  moment  than  ever  before ;  for  though  it  stood  a 
good  ten  feet  away  from  the  one  I  was  now  in,  great 
pains  had  been  taken  by  its  occupants  to  close 
every  opening  which  might  invite  the  glances  of 
a  prying  eye.  A  door  which  had  once  opened 
on  the  alley  running  between  the  two  houses  had 
been  removed  and  its  place  boarded  up.  So  with 
a  window  higher  up;  the  half-circle  window  near 
the  roof,  I  could  not  see  from  my  present  point  of 
view. 

Drawing  back,  I  reclosed  the  shutter,  lowered 
the  window  and  started  for  my  own  room.  As 
I  passed  the  first  stair-head,  I  heard  a  baby's 

50 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

laugh,  followed  by  a  merry  shout,  which,  ringing 
through  the  house,  seemed  to  dispel  all  its  shad 
ows. 

I  had  touched  reality  again.  Remembering 
Mayor  Packard's  suggestion  that  I  might  through 
the  child  find  a  means  of  reaching  the  mother,  I 
paid  a  short  visit  to  the  nursery  where  I  found 
a  baby  whose  sweetness  must  certainly  have  won 
its  mother's  deepest  love.  Letty,  the  nurse,  was 
of  a  useful  but  commonplace  type,  a  conscien 
tious  nurse,  that  was  all. 

But  I  was  to  have  a  further  taste  of  the  unusual 
that  night  and  to  experience  another  thrill  before 
I  slept.  My  room  was  dark  when  I  entered  it, 
and,  recognizing  a  condition  favorable  to  the  grat 
ification  of  my  growing  curiosity  in  regard  to  the 
neighboring  house,  I  approached  the  window  and 
stole  a  quick  look  at  the  gable-end  where,  earlier 
in  the  evening  I  had  seen  peering  out  at  me  an 
old  woman's  face.  Conceive  my  astonishment  at 
finding  the  spot  still  lighted  and  a  face  looking 
out,  but  not  the  same  face,  a  countenance  as 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

old,  one  as  intent,  but  of  different  conformation 
and  of  a  much  more  intellectual  type.  I  con 
sidered  myself  the  victim  of  an  illusion;  I  tried 
to  persuade  myself  that  it  was  the  same  woman, 
only  in  another  garb  and  under  a  different  state 
of  feeling;  but  the  features  were  much  too  dissimi 
lar  for  such  an  hypothesis  to  hold.  The  eager 
ness,  the  unswerving  attitude  were  the  same,  but 
the  first  woman  had  had  a  weak  round  face  with 
pinched  features,  while  this  one  showed  a  virile 
head  and  long  heavy  cheeks  and  chin,  which  once 
must  have  been  full  of  character,  though  they 
now  showed  only  heaviness  of  heart  and  the  dull 
apathy  of  a  fixed  idea. 

Two  women,  total  strangers  to  me,  united  in 
an  unceasing  watch  upon  me  in  my  room!  I  own 
that  the  sense  of  mystery  which  this  discovery 
brought  struck  me  at  the  moment  as  being  fully  as 
uncanny  and  as  unsettling  to  contemplate  as  the 
idea  of  a  spirit  haunting  walls  in  which  I  was 
(destined  for  a  while  to  live,  breathe  and  sleep. 

However,  as  soon  as  I  had  drawn  the  shade  and 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

lighted  the  gas,  I  forgot  the  whole  thing,  and 
not  till  I  was  quite  ready  for  bed,  and  my  light 
again  turned  low,  did  I  feel  the  least  desire  to  take 
another  peep  at  that  mysterious  window.  The 
face  was  still  there,  peering  at  me  through  a 
flood  of  moonlight.  The  effect  was  ghastly,  and 
for  hours  I  could  not  sleep,  imagining  that  face 
still  staring  down  upon  me,  illuminated  with  the 
unnatural  light  and  worn  with  a  profitless  and 
unmeaning  vigil. 

That  there  was  something  to  fear  in  this  house 
was  evident  from  the  halting  step  with  which  the 
servants,  one  and  all,  passed  my  door  on  their 
way  up  to  their  own  beds.  I  now  knew,  or  thought 
I  knew,  what  was  in  their  minds;  but  the 
comfort  brought  by  this  understanding  was 
scarcely  sufficient  to  act  as  antidote  to  the  keen 
strain  to  which  my  faculties  had  been  brought. 
Yet  nothing  happened,  and  when  a  clock  some 
where  in  the  house  had  assured  me  by  its  own 
clear  stroke  that  the  dreaded  midnight  hour  had 
passed  I  rose  and  stole  again  to  the  window.  This 
53 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

time  both  moonlight  and  face  were  gone.  Content 
ment  came  with  the  discovery.  I  crept  back  to 
bed  with  lightened  heart  and  soon  was  asleep. 

Next  morning,  however,  the  first  face  was  again 
at  the  window,  as  I  at  once  saw  on  raising  the 
blind.  I  breakfasted  alone.  Mrs.  Packard  was 
not  yet  down  and  the  mayor  had  already  left  to 
fulfil  an  early  appointment  down-town.  Old  Nix 
on  waited  on  me.  As  he,  like  every  other  member 
of  the  family,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
mayor,  was  still  an  unknown  quantity  in  the  prob 
lem  given  me  to  solve,  I  allowed  a  few  stray 
glances  to  follow  him  as  he  moved  decorously 
about  the  board  anticipating  my  wants  and  show 
ing  himself  an  adept  in  his  appointed  task.  Once 
I  caught  his  eye  and  I  half  expected  him  to 
speak,  but  he  was  too  well-trained  for  that,  and 
the  meal  proceeded  in  the  same  silence  in  which 
it  had  begun.  But  this  short  interchange  of 
looks  had  given  me  an  idea.  He  showed  an  eager 
interest  in  me  quite  apart  from  his  duty  to  me 
as  waiter.  He  was  nearer  sixty  than  fifty,  but 

54 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

it  was  not  his  age  which  made  his  hand  tremble 
as  he  laid  down  a  plate  before  me  or  served  me 
with  coffee  and  bread.  Whether  this  interest  was 
malevolent  or  kindly  I  found  it  impossible  to 
judge.  He  had  a  stoic's  face  with  but  one  elo 
quent  feature — his  eyes;  and  these  he  kept  stu 
diously  lowered  after  that  one  quick  glance. 
Would  it  help  matters  for  me  to  address  him? 
Possibly,  but  I  decided  not  to  risk  it.  Whatever 
my  immediate  loss  I  must  on  no  account  rouse  the 
least  distrust  in  this  evidently  watchful  household. 
If  knowledge  came  naturally,  well  and  good;  I 
must  not  seem  to  seek  it. 

The  result  proved  my  discretion.  As  I  was 
rising  from  the  table  Nixon  himself  made  this 
remark: 

"Mrs.  Packard  will  be  glad  to  see  you  in  her 
room  up-stairs  any  time  after  ten  o'clock.  Ellen 
will  show  you  where."  Then,  as  I  was  framing 
a  reply,  he  added  in  a  less  formal  tone:  "I  hope 
you  were  not  disturbed  last  night.  I  told  the 
girls  not  to  be  so  noisy." 
55 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Now  they  had  been  very  quiet,  so  I  perceived 
that  he  simply  wanted  to  open  conversation. 

"I  slept  beautifully,"  I  assured  him.  "Indeed, 
I'm  not  easily  kept  awake.  I  don't  believe  I  could 
keep  awake  if  I  knew  that  a  ghost  would  stalk 
through  my  room  at  midnight." 

His  eyes  opened,  and  he  did  just  what  I  had 
intended  him  to  do, — met  my  glance  directly. 

"Ghosts!"  he  repeated,  edging  uneasily  for 
ward,  perhaps  with  the  intention  of  making  audi 
ble  his  whisper:  "Do  you  believe  in  ghosts?" 

I  laughed  easily  and  with  a  ringing  merriment, 
like  the  light-hearted  girl  I  should  be  and  am 
not. 

"No,"  said  I,  "why  should  I?  But  I  should 
like  to.  I  really  should  enjoy  the  experience  of 
coming  face  to  face  with  a  wholly  shadowless  be 
ing." 

He  stared  and  now  his  eyes  told  nothing.  Me 
chanically  I  moved  to  go,  mechanically  he  stepped 
aside  to  give  me  place.  But  his  curiosity  or  his 
interest  would  not  allow  him  to  see  me  pass  out 

56 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

without  making  another  attempt  to  understand  me. 
Stammering  in  his  effort  to  seem  indifferent,  he 
dropped  this  quiet  observation  just  as  I  reached 
the  door. 

"Some  people  say,  or  at  least  I  have  heard  it 
whispered  in  the  neighborhood,  that  this  house  is 
haunted.  I've  never  seen  anything,  myself." 

I  forced  myself  to  give  a  tragic  start  (I  was 
half  ashamed  of  my  arts),  and,  coming  back, 
turned  a  purposely  excited  countenance  toward 
him. 

"This  house!"  I  cried.  "Oh,  how  lovely!  I 
never  thought  I  should  have  the  good  fortune  of 
passing  the  night  in  a  house  that  is  really  haunted. 
What  are  folks  supposed  to  see?  I  don't  know 
much  about  ghosts  out  of  books." 

Thia  nonplussed  him.  He  was  entirely  out  of 
his  element.  He  glanced  nervously  at  the  door 
and  tried  to  seem  at  his  ease;  perhaps  tried  to 
copy  my  own  manner  as  he  mumbled  these  words: 

"I've  not  given  much  attention  to  the  matter, 
Miss.  It's  not  long  since  we  came  here  and  Mrs. 

57 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Packard  don't  approve  of  our  gossiping  with  the 
neighbors.  But  I  think  the  people  have  mostly 
been  driven  away  by  strange  noises  and  by  lights 
which  no  one  could  explain,  flickering  up  over 
the  ceilings  from  the  halls  below.  I  don't  want 
to  scare  you,  Miss — 

"Oh,  you  won't  scare  me." 

"Mrs.  Packard  wouldn't  like  me  to  do  that. 
She  never  listens  to  a  word  from  us  about  these 
things,  and  we  don't  believe  the  half  of  it  our 
selves ;  but  the  house  does  have  a  bad  name,  and 
it's  the  wonder  of  everybody  that  the  mayor  will 
live  in  it." 

"Sounds?"  I  repeated.  "Lights  ?"— and 
laughed  again.  "I  don't  think  I  shall  bother  my 
self  about  them  !"  I  went  gaily  out. 

It  did  seem  very  puerile  to  me,  save  as  it 
might  possibly  account  in  some  remote  way  for 
Mrs.  Packard's  peculiar  mental  condition. 

Up-stairs  I  found  Ellen.  She  was  in  a  talka 
tive  mood,  and  this  time  I  humored  her  till  she 
had  told  me  all  she  knew  about  the  house  and  its 

58 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

ghostly  traditions.  This  all  had  come  from  a 
servant,  a  nurse  who  had  lived  in  the  house  be 
fore.  Ellen  herself,  like  the  butler,  Nixon,  had 
had  no  personal  experiences  to  relate,  though  the 
amount  of  extra  wages  she  received  had  quite 
prepared  her  for  them.  Her  story,  or  rather  the 
nurse's  story,  was  to  the  following  effect. 

The  house  had  been  built  and  afterward  in 
habited  for  a  term  of  years  by  one  of  the  city 
fathers,  a  well-known  and  still  widely  remembered 
merchant.  No  unusual  manifestations  had  marked 
it  during  his  occupancy.  Not  till  it  had  run  to 
seed  and  been  the  home  of  decaying  gentility, 
and  later  of  actual  poverty,  did  it  acquire  a  name 
which  made  it  difficult  to  rent,  though  the  neigh 
borhood  was  a  growing  one  and  the  house  itself 
•well-enough  built  to  make  it  a  desirable  residence. 
Those  who  had  been  induced  to  try  living  within 
its  spacious  walls  invariably  left  at  the  end  of  the 
month.  Why,  they  hesitated  to  say ;  yet  if  pressed 
would  acknowledge  that  the  rooms  were  full  of 
terrible  sights  and  sounds  which  they  could  not  ac- 
59 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

count  for;  that  a  presence  other  than  their  own 
was  felt  in  the  house;  and  that  once  (every  tenant 
seemed  to  be  able  to  cite  one  instance)  a  hand  had 
touched  them  or  a  breath  had  brushed  their  cheek 
which  had  no  visible  human  source,  and  could  be 
traced  to  no  mortal  presence.  Not  much  in  all 
this,  but  it  served  after  a  while  to  keep  the  house 
empty,  while  its  reputation  for  mystery  did  not 
lie  idle.  Sounds  were  heard  to  issue  from  it.  At 
times  lights  were  seen  glimmering  through  this 
or  that  chink  or  rift  in  the  window  curtain,  but 
by  the  time  the  door  was  unlocked  and  people 
were  able  to  rush  in,  the  interior  was  still  and 
dark  and  seemingly  untouched.  Finally  the  po 
lice  took  a  hand  in  the  matter.  They  were  on 
the  scent  just  then  of  a  party  of  counterfeiters 
and  were  suspicious  of  the  sounds  and  lights  in 
this  apparently  unoccupied  dwelling.  But  they 
watched  and  waited  in  vain.  One  of  them  got  a 
scare  and  that  was  all.  The  mystery  went  un 
solved  and  the  sign  "To  Let"  remained  indefinite 
ly  on  the  house-front. 

60 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

At  last  a  family  from  the  West  decided  to  risk 
the  terrors  of  this  domicile.  The  nurse,  whose 
story  I  was  listening  to,  came  with  them  and  en 
tered  upon  her  duties  without  prejudice  or  any 
sort  of  belief  in  ghosts,  general  or  particular.  She 
held  this  belief  just  two  weeks.  Then  her  incredu 
lity  began  to  waver.  In  fact,  she  saw  the  light ; 
almost  saw  the  ghost,  certainly  saw  the  ghost's 
penumbra.  It  was  one  night,  or  rather  very  early 
one  morning.  She  had  been  sitting  up  with  the 
baby,  who  had  been  suffering  from  a  severe  attack 
of  croup.  Hot  water  was  wanted,  and  she  started 
for  the  kitchen  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  fire 
and  putting  on  the  kettle.  The  gas  had  not  been 
lit  in  the  hall — they  had  all  been  too  busy,  and 
she  was  feeling  her  way  down  the  front  stairs  with 
a  box  of  matches  in  her  hand,  when  suddenly  she 
heard  from  somewhere  below  a  sound  which  she 
could  never  describe,  and  at  the  same  moment  saw 
a  light  which  spread  itself  through  all  the  lower 
hall  so  that  every  object  stood  out  distinctly. 

She  did  not  think  of  the  ghost  at  first,  her 
61 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

thoughts  were  so  full  of  the  child;  but  when  a 
board  creaked  in  the  hall  floor,  a  board  that  al 
ways  creaked  when  stepped  on,  she  remembered 
the  reputation  and  what  had  been  told  her  about 
a  creaking  board  and  a  light  that  came  and  went 
without  human  agency.  Frightened  for  a  min 
ute,  she  stood  stock-still,  then  she  rushed  down. 
Whatever  it  was,  natural  or  supernatural,  she  went 
to  see  it;  but  the  light  vanished  before  she  passed 
the  lower  stair,  and  only  a  long-drawn  sigh  not 
far  from  her  ear  warned  her  that  the  space  be 
tween  her  and  the  real  hall  was  not  the  solitude 
she  was  anxious  to  consider  it.  A  sigh!  That 
meant  a  person.  Striking  a  match,  she  looked 
eagerly  down  the  hall.  Something  was  moving 
between  the  two  walls.  But  when  she  tried  to 
determine  its  character,  it  was  swallowed  up  in 
(darkness, — the  match  had  gone  out.  Anxious  for 
the  child  and  determined  to  go  her  way  to  the 
kitchen,  she  now  felt  about  for  the  gas-fixture  and 
succeeded  in  lighting  up.  The  whole  hall  again 
burst  into  view  but  the  thing  was  no  longer  there ; 

62 


LIGHTS— SOUNDS 

the  space  was  absolutely  empty.  And  so  were  the 
other  rooms,  for  she  went  into  every  one,  lighting 
the  gas  as  she  went;  and  so  was  the  cellar  when 
she  reached  it.  For  she  had  to  go  to  its  extreme 
length  for  wood  and  wait  about  the  kitchen  till 
the  water  boiled,  during  which  time  she  searched 
every  nook  and  cranny.  Oh,  she  was  a  brave  wom 
an,  but  she  did  have  this  thought  as  she  went 
up-stairs:  If  the  child  died  she  would  know  that 
she  had  seen  a  spirit;  if  the  child  got  well,  that 
she  had  been  the  victim  of  her  own  excitement. 

And  did  the  child  die? 

"No,  it  got  well,  but  the  family  moved  out  as 
soon  as  it  was  safe  to  leave  the  house.  Her  em 
ployees  did  not  feel  as  easy  about  the  matter  as 
she  did." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    STRANGE    NEIGHBORS    NEXT    DOOR 

When  I  joined  Mrs.  Packard  I  found  her  cheer 
ful  and  in  all  respects  quite  unlike  the  brooding 
woman  she  had  seemed  when  I  first  met  her.  From 
the  toys  scattered  about  her  feet  I  judged  that 
the  child  had  been  with  her,  and  certainly  the 
light  in  her  eyes  had  the  beaming  quality  we  as 
sociate  with  the  happy  mother.  She  was  beautiful 
thus  and  my  hopes  of  her  restoration  to  happi 
ness  rose. 

"I  have  had  a  good  night,"  were  her  first  words 
as  she  welcomed  me  to  a  seat  in  her  own  little 
nook.  "I'm  feeling  very  well  this  morning.  That 
is  why  I  have  brought  out  this  big  piece  of  work." 
She  held  up  a  baby's  coat  she  was  embroidering. 
"I  can  not  do  it  when  I  am  nervous.  Are  you 
ever  nervous  ?" 

Delighted  to  enter  into  conversation  with  her,  I 
64 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

answered  in  a  way  to  lead  her  to  talk  about  her 
self,  then,  seeing  she  was  in  a  favorable  mood  for 
gossip,  was  on  the  point  of  venturing  all  in  a 
leading  question,  when  she  suddenly  forestalled  me 
by  putting  one  to  me. 

"Were  you  ever  the  prey  of  an  idea?"  she 
asked ;  "one  which  you  could  not  shake  off  by  any 
ordinary  means,  one  which  clung  to  you  night  and 
day  till  nothing  else  seemed  real  or  would  rouse 
the  slightest  interest?  I  mean  a — a  religious 
idea,"  she  stammered  with  anxious  attempt  to  hide 
her  real  thought.  "One  of  those  doubts  which 
come  to  you  in  the  full  swing  of  life  to — to 
frighten  and  unsettle  you." 

"Yes,"  I  answered,  as  naturally  and  quietly  as 
I  knew  how ;  "I  have  had  such  ideas — such 
doubts." 

"And  were  you  able  to  throw  them  off? — by 
your  will,  I  mean." 

She  was  leaning  forward,  her  eyes  fixed  eager 
ly  on  mine.  How  unexpected  the  privilege !  I  felt 
that  in  another  moment  her  secret  would  be  mine. 

65 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"In  time,  yes,"  I  smiled  back.  "Everything 
yields  to  time  and  persistent  conscientious  work." 

"But  if  you  can  not  wait  for  time,  if  you  must 
be  relieved  at  once,  can  the  will  be  made  to  suf 
fice,  when  the  day  is  dark  and  one  is  alone  and 
not  too  busy?" 

"The  will  can  do  much,"  I  insisted.  "Dark 
thoughts  can  be  kept  down  by  sheer  determination. 
But  it  is  better  to  fill  the  mind  so  full  with  what 
is  pleasant  that  no  room  is  left  for  gloom.  There 
is  so  much  to  enjoy  it  must  take  a  real  sorrow  to 
disturb  a  heart  resolved  to  be  happy." 

"Yes,  resolved  to  be  happy.  I  am  resolved  to  be 
happy."  And  she  laughed  merrily  for  a  mo 
ment.  "Nothing  else  pays.  I  will  not  dwell  on 
anything  but  the  pleasures  which  surround  me." 
Here  she  took  up  her  work  again.  "I  will  forget 
— I  will — "  She  stopped  and  her  eyes  left  her 
work  to  flash  a  rapid  and  involuntary  glance  over 
her  shoulder.  Had  she  heard  a  step?  I  had  not. 
Or  had  she  felt  a  draft  of  which  I  in  my  bounding 
health  was  unconscious? 

66 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

"Are  you  cold?"  I  asked,  as  her  glance  stole 
back  to  mine.  "You  are  shivering — " 

"Oh,  no,"  she  answered  coldly,  almost  proudly. 
"I'm  perfectly  warm.  I  don't  feel  slight  changes. 
I  thought  some  one  was  behind  me.  I  felt — Is 
Ellen  in  the  adjoining  room?" 

I  jumped  up  and  moved  toward  the  door  she 
indicated.  It  was  slightly  ajar,  but  Ellen  was  not 
behind  it. 

"There's  no  one  here,"  said  I. 

She  did  not  answer.  SLe  was  bending  again 
over  her  work,  and  gave  no  indication  of  speak 
ing  again  on  that  or  the  more  serious  topic  we 
had  previously  been  discussing. 

Naturally  I  felt  disappointed.  I  had  hoped 
much  from  the  conversation,  and  now  these  hopes 
bade  fair  to  fail  me.  How  could  I  restore  mat 
ters  to  their  former  basis?  Idly  I  glanced  out 
of  the  side  window  I  was  passing,  and  the  view 
of  the  adjoining  house  I  thus  gained  acted  like 
an  inspiration.  I  would  test  her  on  a  new  topic, 
in  the  hope  of  reintroducing  the  old.  The  glimpse 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  had  gained  into  Mrs.  Packard's  mind  must  not 
be  lost  quite  as  soon  as  this. 

"You  asked  me  a  moment  ago  if  I  were  ever 
nervous,"  I  began,  as  I  regained  my  seat  at  her 
side.  "I  replied,  'Sometimes';  but  I  might  have 
said  if  I  had  not  feared  being  too  abrupt,  'Never 
till  I  came  into  this  house.' ' 

Her  surprise  partook  more  of  curiosity  than  I 
expected. 

"You  are  nervous  here,"  she  repeated.  "What 
is  the  reason  of  that,  pray?  Has  Ellen  been  chat 
tering  to  you?  I  thought  she  knew  enough  not 
to  do  that.  There's  nothing  to  fear  here,  Miss 
Saunders ;  absolutely  nothing  for  you  to  fear.  I 
should  not  have  allowed  you  to  remain  here  a 
night  if  there  had  been.  No  ghost  will  visit  you." 

"No,  I  hear  they  never  wander  above  the  sec 
ond  story,"  I  laughed.  "If  they  did  I  should 
hardly  anticipate  the  honor  of  a  visit.  It  is  not 
ghosts  I  fear ;  it  is  something  quite  different  which 
affects  me, — living  eyes,  living  passions,  the  old 
ladies  next  door,"  I  finished  falteringly,  for  Mrs. 

68 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

Packard  was  looking  at  me  with  a  show  of  start 
ling  alarm.  "They  stare  into  my  room  night  and 
day.  I  never  look  out  but  I  encounter  the  un 
canny  glance  of  one  or  the  other  of  them.  Are 
they  live  women  or  embodied  memories  of  the  past? 
They  don't  seem  to  belong  to  the  present.  I  own 
that  they  frighten  me." 

I  had  exaggerated  my  feelings  in  order  to  mark 
their  effect  upon  her.  The  result  disappointed 
me;  she  was  not  afraid  of  these  two  poor  old 
women.  Far  from  it. 

"Draw  your  curtains,"  she  laughed.  "The 
poor  things  are  crazy  and  not  really  accountable. 
Their  odd  ways  and  manners  troubled  me  at  first, 
but  I  soon  got  over  it.  I  have  even  been  in  to 
see  them.  That  was  to  keep  them  from  coming 
here.  I  think  if  you  were  to  call  upon  them  they 
would  leave  you  alone  after  that.  They  are  very 
fond  of  being  called  on.  They  are  persons  of  the 
highest  gentility,  you  know.  They  owned  this 
house  a  few  years  ago,  as  well  as  the  one  they  are 
now  living  in,  but  misfortunes  overtook  them  and 

69 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

this  one  was  sold  for  debt.  I  am  very  sorry  for 
them  myself.  Sometimes  I  think  they  have  not 
enough  to  eat." 

"Tell  me  about  them,"  I  urged.  Lightly  as 
she  treated  the  topic  I  felt  convinced  that  these 
strange  neighbors  of  hers  were  more  or  less  in 
volved  in  the  mystery  of  her  own  peculiar  moods 
and  unaccountable  fears. 

"It's  a  great  secret,"  she  announced  naively. 
"That  is,  their  personal  history.  I  have  never 
told  it  to  any  one.  I  have  never  told  it  to  my 
husband.  They  confided  it  to  me  in  a  sort  of 
desperation,  perhaps  because  my  husband's  name 
inspired  them  with  confidence.  Immediately  af 
ter,  I  could  see  that  they  regretted  the  impulse, 
and  so  I  have  remained  silent.  But  I  feel  like 
telling  you;  feel  as  if  it  would  divert  me  to  do 
so — keep  me  from  thinking  of  other  things.  You 
won't  want  to  talk  about  it  and  the  story  will 
cure  your  nervousness." 

"Do  you  want  me  to  promise  not  to  talk  about 
it?"  I  inquired  in  some  anxiety. 

70 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

"No.  You  have  a  good,  true  face ;  a  face  whicK 
immediately  inspires  confidence.  I  shall  exact  no 
promises.  I  can  rely  on  your  judgment." 

I  thanked  her.  I  was  glad  not  to  be  obliged 
to  promise  secrecy.  It  might  become  my  impera 
tive  duty  to  disregard  such  a  promise. 

"You  have  seen  both  of  their  faces?"  she  asked. 

I  nodded. 

"Then  you  must  have  observed  the  'difference 
between  them.  There  is  the  same  difference  in 
their  minds,  though  both  are  clouded.  One  is 
weak  almost  to  the  point  of  idiocy,  though  strong 
enough  where  her  one  settled  idea  is  concerned. 
The  other  was  once  a  notable  character,  but  her 
fine  traits  have  almost  vanished  under  the  spell 
which  has  been  laid  upon  them  by  the  immense 
disappointment  which  has  wrecked  both  their 
lives.  I  heard  it  all  from  Miss  Thankful  the  day 
after  we  entered  this  house.  Miss  Thankful  is 
the  older  and  more  intellectual  one.  I  had  known 
very  little  about  them  before ;  no  more,  in  fact, 
than  I  have  already  told  you.  I  was  consequently 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

much  astonished  when  they  called,  for  I  had  sup 
posed  them  to  be  veritable  recluses,  but  I  was  still 
more  astonished  when  I  noted  their  manner  and  the 
agitated  and  strangely  penetrating  looks  they  cast 
about  them  as  I  ushered  them  into  the  library, 
which  was  the  only  room  I  had  had  time  to  ar 
range.  A  few  minutes'  further  observation  of 
them  showed  me  that  neither  of  them  was  quite 
right.  Instead  of  entering  into  conversation 
with  me  they  continued  to  cast  restless  glances  at 
the  walls,  ceilings,  and  even  at  the  floor  of  the 
room  in  which  we  sat,  and  when,  in  the  hope  of 
attracting  their  attention  to  myself,  I  addressed 
them  on  some  topic  which  I  thought  would  be 
interesting  to  them,  they  not  only  failed  to  listen, 
but  turned  upon  each  other  with  slowly  wagging 
heads,  which  not  only  revealed  their  condition  but 
awakened  me  to  its  probable  cause.  They  were 
between  walls  rendered  dear  by  old  associations. 
Till  their  first  agitation  was  over  I  could  not  hope 
for  their  attention. 

"But  their  agitation  gave  no  signs  of  diminish- 
72 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

ing  and  I  soon  saw  that  their  visit  was  far  from 
being  a  ceremonial  one ;  that  it  was  one  of  definite 
purpose.  Preparing  myself  for  I  knew  not 
what,  I  regarded  them  with  such  open  interest 
that  before  I  knew  it,  and  quite  before  I  was 
ready  for  any  such  exhibition,  they  were  both  on 
their  knees  before  me,  holding  up  their  meager 
arms  with  beseeching  and  babbling  words  which 
I  did  not  understand  till  later. 

"I  was  shocked,  as  you  may  believe,  and  quick 
ly  raised  them,  at  which  Miss  Thankful  told  me 
their  story,  which  I  will  now  tell  you. 

"There  were  four  of  them  originally,  three  sis 
ters  and  one  brother.  The  brother  early  went  West 
and  disappeared  out  of  their  lives,  and  the  third  sis 
ter  married.  This  was  years  and  years  ago,  when 
they  were  all  young.  From  this  marriage  sprang 
all  their  misfortune.  The  nephew  which  this  mar 
riage  introduced  to  their  family  became  their  bane 
as  well  as  their  delight.  From  being  a  careless 
spendthrift  boy  he  became  a  reckless,  scheming 
man,  adding  extravagance  to  extravagance,  till, 

73 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to   support   him   and   meet  his  'debts,  these   poor 
aunts  gave  up  first  their  luxuries,  then  their  home 
and  finally  their  very  livelihood.     Not  that  they 
acknowledged  this.     The  feeling  they  both  cher 
ished  for  him  was  more  akin  to  infatuation  than 
to  ordinary  family  love.     They  did  not  miss  their 
luxuries,   they   did   not   mourn   their   home,   they 
did   not   even   mourn   their   privations ;   but   they 
were  broken-hearted  and  had  been  so  for  a  long 
time,   because   they   could   no  longer   do   for  him 
as  of  old.     Shabby  themselves,  and  evidently  ill- 
nourished,  they  grieved  not  over  their  own  changed 
lot,  but  over  his.     They  could  not  be  reconciled 
to  his  lack  of  luxuries,  much  less  to  the  difficulties 
in   which  he  frequently   found   himself,  who  was 
made  to  ruffle  it  with  the  best  and  be  the  pride 
of  their  lives  as  he  was  the  darling  of  their  hearts. 
All  this  the  poor  old  things  made  apparent  to  me, 
but  their  story  did  not  become  really  interesting 
till  they  began  to  speak  of  this  house  we  are  in, 
and  of  certain  events  which  followed  their  removal 
to  the  ramshackle  dwelling  next  door.     The  sale 

74 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

of  this  portion  of  the  property  had  relieved  them 
from  their  debts,  but  they  were  otherwise  penni 
less,  and  were  just  planning  the  renting  of  their 
rooms  at  prices  which  would  barely  serve  to  pro 
vide  them  with  a  scanty  living,  when  there  came 
a  letter  from  their  graceless  nephew,  asking  for 
a  large  amount  of  money  to  save  him  from  com 
plete  disgrace.  They  had  no  money,  and  were  in 
the  midst  of  their  sorrow  and  perplexity,  when  a 
carriage  drove  up  to  the  door  of  this  house  and 
from  it  issued  an  old  and  very  sick  man — their 
long  absent  and  almost  forgotten  brother.  He  had 
come  home  to  die,  and  when  told  his  sisters'  circum 
stances,  and  how  soon  the  house  next  door  would 
be  filled  with  lodgers,  insisted  upon  having  this 
place  of  his  birth,  which  was  empty  at  the  time, 
opened  for  his  use.  The  owner,  after  long  con 
tinued  entreaties  from  the  poor  old  sisters,  finally 
consented  to  the  arrangement.  A  bed  was  made 
up  in  the  library,  and  the  old  man  laid  on  it." 

Mrs.  Packard's  voice  fell,  and  I  cast  her  a  hu 
morous  look. 

75 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Were  there  ghosts  in  those  days?"  I  lightly 
asked. 

Her  answer  was  calm  enough. 

"Not  yet,  but  the  place  must  have  been  desolate 
enough  for  one.  I  have  sometimes  tried  to  imag 
ine  the  scene  surrounding  that  broken-down  old 
man.  There  was  no  furniture  in  the  room,  save 
what  was  indispensable  to  his  bare  comfort.  Miss 
Thankful  expressly  said  there  was  no  carpet, — 
you  will  presently  see  why.  Even  the  windows 
had  no  other  protection  than  the  bare  shutters. 
But  he  was  in  his  old  home,  and  seemed  content 
till  Miss  Charity  fell  sick,  and  they  had  to  call 
in  a  nurse  to  assist  Miss  Thankful,  who  by  this 
time  had  a  dozen  lodgers  to  look  after.  Then  he 
grew  very  restless.  Miss  Thankful  said  he  seemed 
to  be  afraid  of  this  nurse,  and  always  had  a  fever 
after  having  been  left  alone  with  her ;  but  he  gave 
no  reason  for  his  fears,  and  she  herself  was  too 
straitened  in  means  and  in  too  much  trouble 
otherwise  to  be  affected  by  such  mere  whims,  and 
went  on  doing  her  best,  sitting  with  him  when- 

76 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

ever  the  opportunity  offered,  and  making  every 
effort  to  conceal  the  anxiety  she  felt  for  her  poor 
nephew  from  her  equally  poor  brother.  The  dis 
ease  under  which  the  brother  labored  was  a  fatal 
one,  and  he  had  not  many  days  to  live.  She  was 
startled  when  one  day  her  brother  greeted  her  ap 
pearance  with  an  earnest  entreaty  for  the  nurse 
to  be  sent  out  for  a  little  while,  as  this  was  his 
last  day,  and  he  had  something  of  great  importance 
to  communicate  to  her  before  he  died. 

"She  had  not  dreamed  of  his  being  so  low  as 
this,  but  when  she  came  to  look  at  him,  she  saw 
that  he  had  not  misstated  his  case,  and  that  he  was 
really  very  near  death.  She  was  in  a  flurry  and 
wanted  to  call  in  the  neighbors  and  rout  her  sister 
up  from  her  own  sick  bed  to  care  for  him.  But 
he  wanted  nothing  and  nobody,  only  to  be  left 
alone  with  her. 

"So  she  sent  the  nurse  out  and  sat  down  on  the 
side  of  the  bed  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say  to  her, 
for  he  looked  very  eager  and  was  smiling  in  a 
way  to  make  her  heart  ache. 

77 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"You  must  remember,"  continued  Mrs.  Pack 
ard,  "that  at  the  time  Miss  Thankful  was  telling 
this  story  we  were  in  the  very  room  where  it  had 
all  happened.  As  she  reached  this  part  of  her 
narration,  she  pointed  to  the  wall  partitioning  off 
the  corridor,  and  explained  that  this  was  where 
the  bed  stood, — an  old  wooden  one  brought  down 
from  her  own  attic. 

"  'It  creaked  when  I  sat  down  on  it,'  said  she, 
'and  I  remember  that  I  felt  ashamed  of  its  shabby 
mattress  and  the  poor  sheets.  But  we  had  no 
better,'  she  moaned,  'and  he  did  not  seem  to  mind.' 
I  tell  you  this  that  you  may  understand  what  must 
have  taken  place  in  her  heart  when,  a  few  minutes 
later,  he  seized  her  hand  in  his  and  said  that  he  had 
a  great  secret  to  communicate  to  her.  Though 
he  had  seemed  the  indifferent  brother  for  years, 
his  heart  had  always  been  with  his  home  and  his 
people,  and  he  was  going  to  prove  it  to  her  now; 
he  had  made  money,  and  this  money  was  to  be  hers 
and  Charity's.  He  had  saved  it  for  them,  brought 
it  to  them  from  the  far  West ;  a  pile  of  money  all 

78 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

honestly  earned,  which  he  hoped  would  buy  back 
their  old  house  and  make  them  happy  again  in 
the  old  way.  He  said  nothing  of  his  nephew. 
They  had  not  mentioned  him,  and  possibly  he 
did  not  even  know  of  his  existence.  All  was  to  be  for 
them  and  the  old  house,  this  old  house.  This 
was  perhaps  why  he  was  content  to  lie  in  the 
midst  of  its  desolation.  He  foresaw  better  days 
for  those  he  loved,  and  warmed  his  heart  at  his 
precious  secret. 

"But  his  sister  sat  aghast.  Money !  and  so  lit 
tle  done  for  his  comfort!  That  was  her  first 
thought.  The  next,  oh,  the  wonder  and  the  hope 
of  it !  Now  the  boy  could  be  saved ;  now  he  could 
have  his  luxuries.  If  only  it  might  be  enough! 
Five  thousand,  ten  thousand.  But  no,  it  could 
not  be  so  much.  Her  brother  was  daft  to  think 
she  could  restore  the  old  home  on  what  he  had 
been  able  to  save.  She  said  something  to  show 
her  doubt,  at  which  he  laughed;  and,  peering 
slowly  and  painfully  about  him,  drew  her  hands 
toward  his  left  side.  'Feel,'  said  he,  'I  have  it 

79 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

all  here.     I  would  trust  nobody.     Fifty  thousand 
dollars.' 

"Fifty  thousand  dollars!  Miss  Thankful 
sprang  to  her  feet,  then  sat  again,  overcome  by 
her  delight.  Placing  her  hand  on  the  wallet  he 
held  tied  about  his  body,  she  whispered,  'Here?' 
"He  nodded  and  bade  her  look.  She  told  me 
she  did  so;  that  she  opened  the  wallet  under  his 
eye  and  took  out  five  bonds  each  for  ten  thousand 
dollars.  She  remembers  them  well;  there  was  no 
mistake  in  the  figures.  She  held  fifty  thousand 
dollars  in  her  hands  for  the  space  of  half  a  min 
ute;  then  he  bade  her  put  them  back,  with  an 
injunction  to  watch  over  him  well  and  not  to  let 
that  woman  nurse  come  near  him  till  she  had  taken 
away  the  wallet  immediately  after  his  death.  He 
could  not  bear  to  part  with  it  while  alive. 

"She  promised.  She  was  in  a  delirium  of  joy. 
In  one  minute  her  life  of  poverty  had  changed 
to  one  of  ecstatic  hope.  She  caressed  her  brother. 
He  smiled  contentedly,  and  sank  into  coma  or 
heavy  sleep.  She  remained  a  few  minutes  watch- 
So 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

ing  him.  Picture  after  picture  of  future  content 
ment  passed  before  her  eyes;  phantasmagoria 
of  joy  which  held  her  enthralled  till  chance  drew 
her  eyes  towards  the  window,  and  she  found  her 
self  looking  out  upon  what  for  the  moment  seemed 
the  continuation  of  her  dream.  This  was  the  fig 
ure  of  her  nephew,  standing  in  the  doorway  of  the 
adjoining  house.  This  entrance  into  the  alley  is 
closed  up  now,  but  in  those  days  it  was  a  con 
stant  source  of  communication  between  the  two 
houses,  and,  being  directly  opposite  the  left-hand 
library  window,  would  naturally  fall  under  her  eye 
as  she  looked  up  from  her  brother's  bedside.  Her 
nephew!  the  one  person  of  whom  she  was  dream 
ing,  for  whom  she  was  planning,  older  by  many 
years  than  when  she  saw  him  last,  but  recogniz 
able  at  once,  as  the  best,  the  handsomest — but  I 
will  spare  you  her  ravings.  She  was  certainly 
in  her  dotage  as  concerned  this  man. 

"He  was  not  alone.     At  his  side  stood  her  sis 
ter,  eagerly  pointing  across  the  alley  to  herself. 
It  was  the  appearance  of  the  sister  which  present- 
Si 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ly  convinced  her  that  what,  she  saw  was  reality 
and  no  dream.  Charity  had  risen  from  her  bed 
to  greet  the  new-comer,  and  her  hasty  toilet  was 
not  one  which  could  have  been  easily  imagined 
even  by  her  sister.  The  long-absent  one  had  re 
turned.  He  was  there,  and  he  did  not  know  what 
these  last  five  minutes  had  done  for  them  all. 
The  joy  of  what  she  had  to  tell  him  was  too  much 
for  her  discretion.  Noting  how  profoundly  her 
brother  slept,  she  slipped  out  of  the  room  to  the 
side  door  and  ran  across  the  alley  to  her  own 
house.  Her  nephew  was  no  longer  in  the  door 
way  where  she  had  seen  him,  but  he  had  left  the 
door  ajar  and  she  rushed  in  to  find  him.  He  was 
in  the  parlor  with  Miss  Charity,  and  no  sooner 
did  her  eyes  fall  on  them  both  than  her  full  heart 
overflowed,  and  she  blurted  out  their  good  for 
tune.  Their  wonder  was  immense  and  in  the  con 
versation  which  ensued  unnoted  minutes  passed. 
Not  till  the  clock  struck  did  she  realize  that  she 
had  left  her  brother  alone  for  a  good  half -hour. 
This  was  not  right  and  she  went  hurrying  back, 

82 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

the  happiest  woman  in  town.  But  it  was  a  short 
lived  happiness.  As  she  reentered  the  sick-room 
she  realized  that  something  was  amiss.  Her  broth 
er  had  moved  from  where  she  had  left  him,  and 
now  lay  stretched  across  the  foot  of  the  bed,  where 
he  had  evidently  fallen  from  a  standing  position. 
He  was  still  breathing,  but  in  great  gasps  which 
shook  the  bed.  When  she  bent  over  him  in  anx 
ious  questioning,  he  answered  her  with  a  ghastly 
stare,  and  that  was  all.  Otherwise,  everything 
looked  the  same. 

"  'What  has  happened  ?  What  have  you  done  ?' 
she  persisted,  trying  to  draw  him  up  on  the  pil 
low.  He  made  a  motion.  It  was  in  the  direction 
of  the  front  door.  'Don't  let  her  in,'  he  muttered. 
'I  don't  trust  her,  I  don't  trust  her.  Let  me  die 
in  peace.'  Then,  as  Miss  Thankful  became  con 
scious  of  a  stir  at  the  front  door,  and  caught  the 
sound  of  a  key  turning  in  the  lock,  which  could 
only  betoken  the  return  of  the  nurse,  he  raised 
himself  a  little  and  she  saw  the  wallet  hanging 
out  of  his  dressing  gown.  'I  have  hidden  it,'  he 

83 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

whispered,  with  a  nervous  look  toward  the  door. 
'I  was  afraid  she  might  come  and  take  it  from 
me,  so  I  put  it  in — '  He  never  said  where.  His 
eyes,  open  and  staring  straight  before  him,  took 
on  a  look  of  horror,  then  slowly  glazed  under  the 
terrified  glance  of  Miss  Thankful.  Death  had  cut 
short  that  vital  sentence,  and  simultaneously  with 
the  entrance  of  the  nurse,  whose  return  he  had 
so  much  feared,  he  uttered  his  last  gasp  and  sank 
back  lifeless  on  his  pillow. 

"With  a  cry  Miss  Thankful  pounced  on  the 
wallet.  It  opened  out  flat  in  her  hand,  as  empty 
as  her  life  seemed  at  that  minute.  But  she  was 
a  brave  woman  and  in  another  instant  her  courage 
had  revived.  The  money  could  not  be  far  away; 
she  would  find  it  at  the  first  search.  Turning 
on  the  nurse,  she  looked  her  full  in  the  face.  The 
woman  was  gazing  at  the  empty  wallet.  'You 
know  what  was  in  that?'  queried  Miss  Thankful. 
A  fierce  look  answered  her.  'A  thousand  dollars !' 
announced  Miss  Thankful.  The  nurse's  lip 
curled.  'Oh,  you  knew  that  it  was  five,'  was  Miss 

84 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

ThankfuPs  next  outburst.  Still  no  answer,  but 
a  look  which  seemed  to  devour  the  empty  wallet. 
This  look  had  its  effect.  Miss  Thankful  dropped 
her  accusatory  tone,  and  attempted  cajolery.  'It 
was  his  legacy  to  us,'  she  explained.  'He  gave 
it  to  me  just  before  he  died.  You  shall  be  paid 
out  of  it.  Now  will  you  call  my  sister?  She's  up 
and  with  my  nephew,  who  came  an  hour  ago.  Call 
them  both;  I  am  not  afraid  to  remain  here  for 
a  few  moments  with  my  brother's  body.'  This 
appeal,  or  perhaps  the  promise,  had  its  effect. 
The  nurse  disappeared,  after  another  careful  look 
at  her  patient,  and  Miss  Thankful  bounded  to 
her  feet  and  began  a  hurried  search  for  the  miss 
ing  bonds.  They  could  not  be  far  away.  They 
must  be  in  the  room,  and  the  room  was  so  nearly 
empty  that  it  would  take  but  a  moment  to  pene 
trate  every  hiding-place.  But  alas!  the  matter 
was  not  so  simple  as  she  thought.  She  looked 
here,  she  looked  there;  in  the  bed,  in  the  wash- 
stand  drawer,  under  the  cushions  of  the  only  chair, 
even  in  the  grate  and  up  the  chimney ;  but  she 
85 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

found  nothing  —  nothing !  She  was  standing 
stark  and  open-mouthed  in  the  middle  of  the 
floor,  when  the  others  entered,  but  recovered  her 
self  at  sight  of  their  surprise,  and,  explaining 
what  had  happened,  set  them  all  to  search, — sis 
ter,  nephew,  even  the  nurse,  though  she  was  care 
ful  to  keep  close  by  the  latter  with  a  watchfulness 
that  let  no  movement  escape  her.  But  it  was  all 
fruitless.  The  bonds  were  not  to  be  found,  either 
in  that  room  or  in  any  place  near.  They  ran 
sacked,  they  rummaged;  they  went  up-stairs,  they 
went  down;  they  searched  every  likely  and  every 
unlikely  place  of  concealment,  but  without  avail. 
They  failed  to  come  upon  the  place  where  he  had 
hidden  them ;  nor  did  Miss  Thankful  or  her  sister 
ever  see  them  again  from  that  day  to  this." 

"Oh!"  I  exclaimed;  "and  the  nephew?  the 
nurse?" 

"Both  went  away  disappointed;  he  to  face  his 
disgrace  about  which  his  aunts  were  very  reticent, 
and  she  to  seek  work  which  was  all  the  more  neces 
sary  to  her,  since  she  had  lost  her  pay  with  the 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

disappearance  of  these  bonds,  whose  value  I  have 
no  doubt  she  knew  and  calculated  on." 

"And  the  aunts,  the  two  poor  old  creatures  who 
stare  all  day  out  of  their  upper  window  at  these 
walls,  still  believe  that  money  to  be  here,"  I  cried. 

"Yes,  that  is  their  mania.  Several  tenants  have 
occupied  these  premises — tenants  who  have  not 
stayed  long,  but  who  certainly  filled  all  the  rooms, 
and  must  have  penetrated  every  secret  spot  the 
house  contains,  but  it  has  made  no  difference  to 
them.  They  believe  the  bonds  to  be  still  lying 
in  some  out-of-the-way  place  in  these  old  walls, 
and  are  jealous  of  any  one  who  comes  in  here. 
This  you  can  understand  better  when  I  tell  you 
that  one  feature  of  their  mania  is  this:  they  have 
lost  all  sense  of  time.  It  is  two  years  since  their 
brother  died,  yet  to  them  it  is  an  affair  of  yes 
terday.  They  showed  this  when  they  talked  to 
me.  What  they  wanted  was  for  me  to  give  up 
these  bonds  to  them  as  soon  as  I  found  them. 
They  seemed  to  think  that  I  might  run  across 
them  in  settling,  and  made  me  promise  to  wake 

87 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

them  day  or  night  if  I  came  across  them  unex 
pectedly." 

"How  pathetic!"  I  exclaimed.  "Do  you  sup 
pose  they  have  appealed  in  the  same  way  to  every 
one  who  has  come  in  here?" 

"No,  or  some  whisper  of  this  lost  money  would 
have  become  current  in  the  neighborhood.  And 
it  never  has.  The  traditions  associated  with  the 
house,"  here  her  manner  changed  a  little,  "are 
of  quite  another  nature.  I  suppose  the  old  gen 
tleman  has  walked — looking,  possibly,  for  his  lost 
bonds." 

"That  would  be  only  natural,"  I  smiled,  for 
her  mood  was  far  from  serious.  "But,"  I  quietly 
pursued,  "how  much  of  this  old  woman's  story  do 
you  believe?  Can  not  she  have  been  deceived  as 
to  what  she  saw?  You  say  she  is  more  or  less 
(demented.  Perhaps  there  never  was  any  old  wal 
let,  and  possibly  never  any  money." 

"I  have  seen  the  wallet.  They  brought  it  in 
to  show  me.  Not  that  that  proves  anything;  but 
somehow  I  do  believe  in  the  money,  and,  what  is 

88 


THE  STRANGE  NEIGHBORS  NEXT  DOOR 

more,  that  it  is  still  in  this  house.  You  will 
think  me  as  demented  as  they." 

"No,  no,"  I  smiled,  "for  I  am  inclined  to  think 
the  same;  it  lends  such  an  interest  to  the  place. 
I  wouldn't  disbelieve  it  now  for  anything." 

"Nor  I,"  she  cried,  taking  up  her  work.  "But 
we  shall  never  find  it.  The  house  was  all  redeco 
rated  when  we  came  in.  Not  one  of  the  workmen 
has  become  suddenly  wealthy." 

"I  shall  no  longer  begrudge  these  poor  old  souls 
their  silent  watch  over  these  walls  that  holds  their 
treasure,"  I  now  remarked. 

"Then  you  have  lost  your  nervousness?" 

"Quite." 

"So  have  I,"  laughed  Mrs.  Packard,  showing 
me  for  the  first  time  a  face  of  complete  compla 
cency  and  contentment. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AT  THE   STAIR-HEAD 

I  spent  the  evening  alone.  Mrs.  Packard  went 
to  the  theater  with  friends  and  Mayor  Packard 
attended  a  conference  of  politicians.  I  felt  my 
loneliness,  but  busied  myself  trying  to  sift  the 
impressions  made  upon  me  by  the  different  mem 
bers  of  the  household. 

It  consisted,  as  far  as  my  present  observation 
went,  of  seven  persons,  the  three  principals  and 
four  servants.  Of  the  servants  I  had  seen  three, 
the  old  butler,  the  nurse,  and  the  housemaid,  Ellen. 
I  now  liked  Ellen;  she  appeared  equally  alive  and 
trustworthy;  of  the  butler  I  could  not  say  as 
much.  He  struck  me  as  secretive.  Also,  he  had 
begun  to  manifest  a  certain  antagonism  to  my 
self.  Whence  sprang  this  antagonism?  Did  it 
have  its  source  in  my  temperament,  or  in  his?  A 


AT  THE  STAIR-HEAD 

question  possibly  not  worth  answering  and  yet 
it  very  well  might  be.  Who  could  know? 

Pondering  this  and  other  subjects,  I  remained 
in  my  cozy  little  room  up-stairs,  till  the  clock 
verging  on  to  twelve  told  me  that  it  was  nearly 
time  for  Mrs.  Packard's  return. 

Hardly  knowing  my  duties  as  yet,  or  what  she 
might  expect  of  me,  I  kept  my  door  open,  mean 
ing  to  speak  to  her  when  she  came  in.  The 
thought  had  crossed  my  mind  that  she  might  not 
return  at  all,  but  remain  away  with  her  friends. 
Some  fear  of  this  kind  had  been  in  Mr.  Packard's 
mind  and  naturally  found  lodgment  in  mine.  I 
was  therefore  much  relieved  when,  sharp  on  the 
stroke  of  midnight,  I  heard  the  front  door-bell 
ring,  followed  by  the  sound  of  her  voice  speaking 
to  the  old  butler.  I  thought  its  tone  more  cheer 
ful  than  before  she  went  out.  At  all  events,  her 
face  had  a  natural  look  when,  after  a  few  min 
utes'  delay,  she  came  up-stairs  and  stepped  into 
the  nursery — a  room  on  the  same  floor  as  mine, 
but  nearer  the  stair-head. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

From  what  impulse  did  I  put  out  my  light? 
I  think  now,  on  looking  back,  that  I  hoped  to 
catch  a  better  glimpse  of  her  face  when  she 
came  out  again,  and  so  be  in  a  position  to  judge 
whether  her  anxiety  or  secret  distress  was  in  any 
special  way  connected  with  her  child.  But  I  for 
got  the  child  and  any  motive  of  this  kind  which 
I  may  have  had ;  for  when  Mrs.  Packard  did  re 
appear  in  the  hall,  there  rang  up  from  some  place 
below  a  laugh,  so  loud  and  derisive  and  of  so 
raucous  and  threatening  a  tone  that  Mrs.  Packard 
reeled  with  the  shock  and  I  myself  was  surprised 
in  spite  of  my  pride  and  usual  impassibility. 

This,  had  it  been  all,  would  not  be  worth  the 
comment.  But  it  was  not  all.  Mrs.  Packard  did 
not  recover  from  the  shock  as  I  expected  her  to. 
Her  fine  figure  straightened  itself,  it  is  true,  but 
only  to  sink  again  lower  and  lower,  till  she  clung 
crouching  to  the  stair-rail  at  which  she  had  caught 
for  support,  while  her  eyes,  turning  slowly  in  her 
head,  moved  till  they  met  mine  with  that  unsee 
ing  and  glassy  stare  which  speaks  of  a  soul-pierc- 

92 


AT  THE  STAIR-HEAD 

ing  terror — not  fear  in  any  ordinary  sense,  but 
terror  which  lays  bare  the  soul  and  allows  one  to 
see  into  depths  which — 

But  here  my  compassion  drove  me  to  action.  Ad 
vancing  quietly,  I  caught  at  her  wrap  which  was 
falling  from  her  shoulders.  She  grasped  my  hand 
as  I  did  so. 

"Did  you  hear  that  laugh?"  she  panted. 
" Whose  was  it?  Who  is  down-stairs?" 

I  thought,  "Is  this  one  of  the  unaccountable 
occurrences  which  have  given  the  house  its  blighted 
reputation?"  but  I  said: 

"Nixon  let  you  in.  I  don't  know  whether  any 
one  else  is  below.  Mayor  Packard  has  not  yet 
come  home." 

"I  know;  Nixon  told  me.  Would  you — would 
you  mind," — how  hard  she  strove  to  show  only 
the  indignant  curiosity  natural  to  the  situation — 
"do  you  object,  I  mean,  to  going  down  and  see- 
ing?" 

"Not  at  all,"  I  cheerfully  answered,  glad  enough 
of  this  chance  to  settle  my  own  doubts.  And  with 
93 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

a  last  glance  at  her  face,  which  was  far  too  white 
and  drawn  to  please  me,  I  hastened  below. 

The  lights  had  not  yet  been  put  out  in  the  halls, 
though  I  saw  none  in  the  drawing-room  or  library. 
Indeed,  I  ran  upon  Nixon  coming  from  the  library, 
where  he  had  evidently  been  attending  to  his  final 
duties  of  fastening  windows  and  extinguishing 
lights.  Alive  to  the  advantage  of  this  opportune 
meeting,  I  addressed  him  with  as  little  aggressive 
ness  as  possible. 

"Mrs.  Packard  has  sent  me  down  to  see  who 
laughed  just  now  so  loudly.  Was  it  you?" 

Strong  and  unmistakable  dislike  showed  in  his 
eyes,  but  his  voice  was  restrained  and  apparently 
respectful  as  he  replied: 

"No,  Miss.  I  didn't  laugh.  There  was  noth 
ing  to  laugh  at." 

"You  heard  the  laugh?  It  seemed  to  come  from 
somewhere  here.  I  was  on  the  third  floor  and  I 
heard  it  plainly." 

His  face  twitched — a  habit  of  his  when  under 
excitement,  as  I  have  since  learned — as  with  a 
shrug  of  his  old  shoulders  he  curtly  answered: 

94 


AT  THE  STAIR-HEAD 

"You  were  listening;  I  was  not.  If  any  one 
laughed  down  here  I  didn't  hear  'em." 

Confident  that  he  was  lying,  I  turned  quietly 
away  and  proceeded  down  the  hall  toward  Mayor 
Packard's  study. 

"I  wish  to  speak  to  the  mayor,"  I  explained. 

"He's  not  there."  The  man  had  eagerly  fol 
lowed  me.  "He's  not  come  home  yet,  Miss." 

"But  the  gas  is  burning  brightly  inside  and  the 
door  ajar.  Some  one  is  there." 

"It  is  Mr.  Steele.  He  came  in  an  hour  ago. 
He  often  works  here  till  after  midnight." 

I  had  heard  what  I  wanted  to  know,  but,  being 
by  this  time  at  the  very  threshold,  I  could  not  for 
bear  giving  the  door  a  slight  push,  so  as  to  catch 
at  least  a  momentary  glimpse  of  the  man  he  spoke 
of. 

He  was  sitting  at  his  post,  and  as  he  neither 
looked  up  nor  stirred  at  my  intrusion,  I  had  an 
excellent  opportunity  for  observing  again  the 
clear-cut  profile  which  had  roused  my  admiration 
the  day  before. 

95 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Certainly,  seen  as  I  saw  it  now,  in  the  concen 
trated  glow  of  a  lamp  shaded  from  every  other  cor 
ner  of  the  room,  it  was  a  face  well  worth  looking  at. 
Seldom,  perhaps  never,  had  I  beheld  one  cast  in 
a  more  faultless  mold.  Smooth-shaven,  with  every 
harmonious  line  open  to  view,  it  struck  the  eye 
with  the  force  and  beauty  of  a  cameo ;  masculine 
strength  and  feminine  grace  equally  expressed 
in  the  expansive  forehead  and  the  perfectly  mod 
eled  features.  Its  effect  upon  the  observer  was  in 
stantaneous,  but  the  heart  was  not  warmed  nor  the 
imagination  awakened  by  it.  In  spite  of  the  per 
fection  of  the  features,  or  possibly  because  of  this 
perfection,  the  whole  countenance  had  a  cold  look, 
as  cold  as  the  sculpture  it  suggested;  and,  though 
incomparable  in  pure  physical  attraction,  it  lacked 
the  indefinable  something  which  gives  life  and 
meaning  to  such  faces  as  Mayor  Packard's, 
for  instance.  Yet  it  was  not  devoid  of  expression, 
nor  did  it  fail  to  possess  a  meaning  of  its  own.  In 
deed,  it  was  the  meaning  in  it  which  held  my  at 
tention.  Abstracted  as  the  man  appeared  to  be, 


AT  THE  STAIR-HEAD 

even  to  the  point  of  not  perceiving  my  intruding 
figure  in  the  open  doorway,  the  thoughts  which 
held  him  were  not  common  thoughts,  nor  were  they 
such  as  could  be  easily  read,  even  by  an  accus 
tomed  eye.  Having  noted  this,  I  softly  withdrew, 
not  finding  any  excuse  for  breaking  in  upon  a 
man  so  occupied. 

The  butler  stood  awaiting  me  not  three  feet 
from  the  door.  But  taking  a  lesson  from  the  gen 
tleman  I  had  just  left,  I  ignored  his  presence  com 
pletely,  and,  tripping  lightly  up-stairs,  found 
Mrs.  Packard  awaiting  me  at  the  head  of  the  first 
flight  instead  of  the  second. 

Her  fears,  or  whatever  it  was  which  moved  her, 
had  not  diminished  in  my  absence.  She  stood 
erect,  but  it  was  by  the  help  of  her  grasp  on  the 
balustrade;  and  though  her  diamonds  shone  and 
her  whole  appearance  in  her  sweeping  dinner-dress 
was  almost  regal,  there  was  mortal  apprehension 
in  her  eye  and  a  passion  of  inquiry  in  her  whole 
attitude  which  I  was  glad  her  husband  was  not 
there  to  see. 

97 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  made  haste  to  answer  that  inquiry  by  imme 
diately  observing: 

"I  saw  Nixon.  He  was  just  coming  out  of  the 
library.  He  says  that  he  heard  no  laugh.  The 
only  other  person  I  came  upon  down-stairs  was 
Mr.  Steele.  He  was  busy  over  some  papers  and 
I  did  not  like  to  interrupt  him;  but  he  did  not 
look  as  if  a  laugh  of  any  sort  had  come  from  him." 

"Thank  you." 

The  words  were  hoarsely  uttered  and  the  tone 
unnatural,  though  she  tried  to  carry  it  off  with 
an  indifferent  gesture  and  a  quick  movement 
toward  her  room.  I  admired  her  self-control,  for 
it  was  self-control,  and  was  contrasting  the  state- 
liness  of  her  present  bearing  with  the  cringing  at 
titude  of  a  few  minutes  before — when,  without 
warning  or  any  premonitory  sound,  all  that  beauty 
and  pride  and  splendor  collapsed  before  my  eyes, 
and  she  fell  at  my  feet,  senseless. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A    MOVING    SHADOW 

I  bent  to  lift  the  prostrate  form  of  the  unhappy 
woman  who  had  been  placed  in  my  care.  As  I 
did  so  I  heard  something  like  a  snarl  over  my 
shoulder,  and,  turning,  saw  Nixon  stretching  eager 
arms  toward  his  mistress,  whose  fall  he  had  doubt 
less  heard. 

"Let  me!  let  me!"  he  cried,  his  old  form  trem 
bling  almost  to  the  point  of  incapacity. 

"We  will  lift  her  together,"  I  rejoined;  and 
though  his  eyes  sparkled  irefully,  he  accepted  my 
help  and  together  we  carried  her  into  her  own 
room  and  laid  her  on  a  lounge. 

I  have  had  some  training  as  a  nurse  and,  per 
ceiving  that  Mrs.  Packard  had  simply  fainted,  I 
was  not  at  all  alarmed,  but  simply  made  an  effort 
to  restore  her  with  a  calmness  that  for  some  reason 
greatly  irritated  the  old  man. 
99 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Shall  I  call  Ellen?  Shall  I  call  Letty?"  he 
kept  crying,  shifting  from  one  foot  to  another  in 
a  frightened  and  fussy  way  that  exasperated  me 
almost  beyond  endurance.  "She  doesn't  breathe; 
she  is  white,  white !  Oh,  what  will  the  mayor  say  ? 
I  will  call  Letty." 

But  I  managed  to  keep  him  under  control  and 
finally  succeeded  in  restoring  Mrs.  Packard — a 
double  task  demanding  not  a  little  self-control  and 
discretion.  When  the  flutter  of  her  eyelids  showed 
that  she  would  soon  be  conscious,  I  pointed  out 
these  signs  of  life  to  my  uneasy  companion  and 
hinted  very  broadly  that  the  fewer  people  Mrs. 
Packard  found  about  her  on  coming  to  herself,  the 
better  she  would  be  pleased.  His  aspect  grew  quite 
ferocious  at  this,  and  for  a  moment  I  almost  feared 
him;  but  as  I  continued  to  urge  the  necessity  of 
avoiding  any  fresh  cause  of  agitation  in  one  so 
weak,  he  gradually  shrank  back  from  my  side 
where  he  had  kept  a  jealous  watch  until  now, 
and  reluctantly  withdrew  into  the  hall. 

Another  moment  and  Mrs.  Packard  had  started 
100 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

to  rise;  but,  on  seeing  me  and  me  only  standing 
before  her,  she  fell  wearily  back,  crying  in  a  sub 
dued  way,  which  nevertheless  was  very  intense: 

"Don't,  don't  let  him  come  in — see  me — or 
know.  I  must  be  by  myself;  I  must  be!  Don't 
you  see  that  I  am  frightened?" 

The  words  came  out  with  such  force  I  was 
startled.  Leaning  over  her,  with  the  natural  sym 
pathy  her  condition  called  for,  I  asked  quietly 
but  firmly: 

"Whom  do  you  mean  by  him?  There  is  only 
one  person  in  the  hall,  and  that  is  your  butler." 

"Hasn't  Mr.  Packard  returned?" 

"No,  Madam." 

"But  I  thought  I  saw  him  looking  at  me." 

Her  eyes  were  wild,  her  body  shaking  with  ir 
repressible  agitation. 

"You  were  mistaken.  Mayor  Packard  has  not 
yet  come  home." 

At  this  double  assurance,  she  sank  back  satis 
fied,  but  still  trembling  and  very  white. 

"It  is  Mr.  Packard  I  meant,"    she    whispered 

101 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

presently.  "Stay  with  me  and,  when  he  comes 
in,  tell  him  what  will  keep  him  from  looking  in 
or  speaking  to  me.  Promise !"  She  was  growing 
wild  again.  "Promise,  if  you  would  be  of  any  use 
to  me." 

"I  do  promise."  At  which  I  felt  her  hand  grasp 
mine  with  grateful  pressure.  "Don't  you  wish 
some  assistance  from  me?  Your  dress — I  tried  to 
loosen  it,  but  failed  to  find  the  end  of  the  cord. 
Shall  I  try  again?" 

"No,  no ;  that  is,  I  will  do  it  myself." 

I  did  not  see  how  she  could,  for  her  waist  was 
laced  up  the  back,  but  I  saw  that  she  was  too 
eager  to  have  me  go  to  remember  this,  and  recog 
nizing  the  undesirability  of  irritating  her  afresh, 
I  simply  asked  if  she  wished  me  to  remain  within 
call. 

But  even  this  was  more  than  she  wanted. 

"No.  I  am  better  now.  I  shall  be  better  yet 
when  quite  alone."  Then  suddenly :  "Who  knows 
of  this — this  folly  of  mine?" 

"Only  Nixon  and  myself.     The  girls  have  gone 

to  bed." 

!I02 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

"Nixon  I  can  trust  not  to  speak  of  it.  Tell  him 
to  go.  You,  I  know,  will  remember  only  long 
enough  to  do  for  me  what  I  have  just  asked." 

"Mrs.  Packard,  you  may  trust  me."  The 
earnest,  confiding  look,  which  for  a  moment  dis 
turbed  the  melancholy  of  her  large  eyes,  touched 
me  closely  as  I  shut  the  door  between  us. 

"Now  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  mystery?" 
I  asked  myself  after  I  had  seen  Nixon  go  down 
stairs,  shaking  his  head  and  casting  every  now 
and  then  a  suspicious  glance  behind  him.  "It  is 
not  as  trivial  as  it  appears.  That  laugh  was  trag 
edy  to  her,  not  comedy."  And  when  I  paused  to 
recollect  its  tone  I  did  not  wonder  at  its  effect 
upon  her  mind,  strained  as  it  undoubtedly  was 
by  some  secret  sorrow  or  perplexity. 

And  from  whose  lips  had  that  laugh  sprung? 
Not  from  ghostly  ones.  Such  an  explanation  I 
could  not  accept,  and  how  could  Mrs.  Packard? 
From  whose,  then?  If  I  could  settle  this  fact  I 
might  perhaps  determine  to  what  extent  its  effect 
was  dependent  upon  its  source.  The  butler  denied 
103 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

having  even  heard  it.  Was  this  to  be  believed  ?  Did 
not  this  very  denial  prove  that  it  was  he  and  no 
other  who  had  thus  shocked  the  proprieties  of 
this  orderly  household?  It  certainly  seemed  so; 
yet  where  all  was  strange,  this  strange  and  incom 
prehensible  denial  of  a  self-evident  fact  by  the 
vindictive  Nixon  might  have  its  source  in  some 
motive  unsuggested  by  the  circumstances.  Cer 
tainly,  Nixon's  mistress  appeared  to  have  a  great 
deal  of  confidence  in  him. 

I  wished  that  more  had  been  told  me  about  the 
handsome  secretary.  I  wished  that  fate  would 
give  me  another  opportunity  for  seeing  that  gen 
tleman  and  putting  the  same  direct  question  to 
him  I  had  put  to  Nixon. 

Scarcely  had  this  thought  crossed  my  mind  be 
fore  a  loud  ring  at  the  telephone  disturbed  the 
quiet  below  and  I  heard  the  secretary's  voice  in  re 
ply.  A  minute  after  he  appeared  at  the  foot  of 
the  stairs.  His  aspect  was  one  of  embarrassment, 
and  he  peered  aloft  in  a  hesitating  way,  as  if  he 
hardly  knew  how  to  proceed. 
104 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

Taking  advantage  of  this  hesitation,  I  ran  soft 
ly  down  to  meet  him. 

"Any  message  for  Mrs.  Packard?"  I  asked. 

He  looked  relieved. 

"Yes,  from  his  Honor.  The  mayor  is  unavoid 
ably  detained  and  may  not  be  home  till  morning." 

"I  will  tell  her."  Then,  as  he  reached  for  his 
overcoat,  I  risked  all  on  one  venture,  and  enlarg 
ing  a  little  on  the  facts,  said : 

"Excuse  me,  but  was  it  you  we  heard  laughing 
down-stairs  a  few  minutes  ago?  Mrs.  Packard 
feared  it  might  be  some  follower  of  the  girls'." 

Pausing  in  the  act  of  putting  on  his  coat,  he  met 
my  look  with  an  air  of  some  surprise. 

"I  am  not  given  to  laughing,"  he  remarked; 
"certainly  not  when  alone." 

"But  you  heard  this  laugh?" 

He  shook  his  head.  His  manner  was  perfectly 
courteous,  almost  cordial. 

"If  I  did,  it  made  no  impression  on  my  mind. 
I  am  extremely  busy  just  now,  working  up  the 
mayor's    next   speech."      And   with   a    smile   and 
105 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

bow  in  every  way  suited  to  his  fine  appearance,  he 
took  his  hat  from  the  rack  and  left  the  house. 

I  drew  back  more  mystified  than  ever.  Which 
of  these  two  men  had  told  me  a  lie?  One,  both, 
or  neither?  Impossible  to  determine.  As  I  try 
never  to  waste  gray  matter,  I  resolved  to  spend 
no  further  energy  on  this  question,  but  simply  to 
await  the  next  development. 

It  came  unexpectedly  and  was  of  an  entirely  dif 
ferent  nature  from  any  I  had  anticipated. 

I  had  not  retired,  not  knowing  at  what  moment 
the  mayor  might  return  or  what  I  might  be  called 
upon  to  do  when  he  did.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  one  of  my  windows  looked  out  upon  the  next 
house.  I  approached  it  to  see  if  my  ever  watch 
ful  neighbors  had  retired.  Their  window  was  dark, 
but  I  observed  what  was  of  much  more  vital  in 
terest  to  me  at  that  moment.  It  was  that  I  was 
not  the  only  one  awake  and  stirring  in  our  house. 
The  light  from  a  room  diagonally  below  me  poured 
in  a  stream  on  the  opposite  wall,  and  it  took  but  a 
moment's  consideration  fqr  me  to  decide  that  the 
106 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

shadow  I  saw  crossing  and  recrossing  this  bril 
liant  square  was  cast  by  Mrs.  Packard. 

My  first  impulse  was  to  draw  back — (that  was 
the  lady's  impulse  not  quite  crushed  out  of  me  by 
the  occupation  circumstances  had  compelled  me  to 
take  up) — my  next,  to  put  out  my  own  light  and 
seat  myself  at  the  post  of  observation  thus  afforded 
me.  The  excuse  I  gave  myself  for  this  was  plausi 
ble  enough.  Mrs.  Packard  had  been  placed  in 
my  charge  and,  if  all  was  not  right  with  her,  it 
was  my  business  to  know  it. 

Accordingly  I  sat  and  watched  each  movement 
of  my  mysterious  charge  as  it  was  outlined  on  the 
telltale  wall  before  me,  and  saw  enough  in  one  half- 
hour  to  convince  me  that  something  very  vigorous 
and  purposeful  was  going  on  in  the  room  so  de 
terminedly  closed  against  every  one,  even  her  own 
husband. 

What? 

The  moving  silhouette  of  her  figure,  which  was 
all  that  I  could  see,  was  not  perfect  enough  in  de 
tail  for  me  to  determine.  She  was  busy  at  some 
107 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

occupation  which  took  her  from  one  end  of  the 
room  to  the  other;  but  after  watching  her  shadow 
for  an  hour  I  was  no  surer  than  at  first  as  to  what 
that  occupation  was.  It  was  a  serious  one, 
I  saw,  and  now  and  then  the  movements  I  watched 
gave  evidence  of  frantic  haste,  but  their  character 
stood  unrevealed  till  suddenly  the  thought  came: 

"She  is  rummaging  bureau-drawers  and  empty 
ing  boxes,  —  in  other  words,  packing  a  bag  or 
trunk." 

Should  I  be  witness  to  a  flight?  I  thought  it 
very  likely,  especially  when  I  heard  the  faint 
sound  of  a  door  opening  below,  followed  by  the 
swish  of  silken  skirts.  I  recalled  Mayor  Packard's 
fears  and  began  to  suspect  that  they  were  not 
groundless. 

This  called  for  action,  and  I  was  about  to  open 
my  door  and  rush  out  when  I  was  deterred  by  the 
surprising  discovery  that  the  steps  I  heard  were 
coming  up  rather  than  going  down,  and  that  in 
another  moment  she  would  be  in  the  hall  outside, 
possibly  on  her  way  to  the  nursery,  possibly  with 
the  intention  of  coming  to  my  own  room. 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

Greatly  taken  aback,  I  stood  with  my  ear  to  the 
door,  listening  intently.  Yes,  she  has  reached  the 
top  of  the  stairs  and  is  stopping — no,  she  passes 
the  nursery  door,  she  is  coming  my  way.  What 
shall  I  say  to  her, — how  account  for  my  comfort 
able  wrapper  and  the  fact  that  I  have  not  yet  been 
abed?  Had  I  but  locked  my  door!  Could  I  but 
lock  it  now,  unseen  and  unheard  before  the  near- 
ing  step  should  pause !  But  the  very  attempt  were 
folly;  no,  I  must  stand  my  ground  and — Ah!  the 
step  has  paused,  but  not  at  my  door.  There  is  a 
third  one  on  this  hall,  communicating,  as  I  knew, 
with  a  covered  staircase  leading  to  the  attic.  It 
was  at  this  she  stopped  and  it  was  up  this  staircase 
she  went  as  warily  and  softly  as  its  creaking  boards 
would  allow;  and  while  I  marveled  as  to  what  had 
taken  her  aloft  so  late,  I  heard  her  steps  over  my 
head  and  knew  that  she  had  entered  the  room 
directly  above  mine. 

Striking  a  match,  I  consulted  my  watch.  It  was 
just  ten  minutes  to  three.  Hardly  knowing  what 
my  duty  was  in  the  circumstances,  I  blew  out  the 
109 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

match  and  stood  listening  while  the  woman  who 
was  such  a  mystery  to  all  her  friends  moved  about 
overhead  in  much  the  same  quick  and  purposeful 
way  as  had  put  life  into  her  shadow  while  she  was 
in  her  own  room. 

"Packing!  Nothing  less  and  nothing  more," 
was  my  now  definite  decision.  "That  is  a  trunk 
she  is  dragging  forward.  What  a  hurry  she  is  in, 
and  how  little  she  cares  whether  anybody  hears 
her!" 

So  little  did  she  care  that  during  the  next  few 
minutes  of  acute  attention  I  distinguished  the  fling 
ing  down  of  article  after  article  on  to  the  floor, 
as  well  as  many  other  movements  betraying  haste 
or  irritation. 

Suddenly  I  heard  her  give  a  bound,  then  the 
sound  of  a  heavy  lid  falling  and  then,  after  a  min 
ute  or  two  of  complete  silence,  the  soft  pat-pat 
of  her  slippered  feet  descending  the  stair. 

Half -past  three. 

Waiting  till  she  was  well  down  the  second  flight, 
I  pushed  my  door  ajar  and,  flying  down  the  hall, 
no 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

peered  over  the  balustrade  in  time  to  see  her  en 
tering  her  room.  She  held  a  lighted  candle  in 
her  hand  and  by  its  small  flame  I  caught  a  full 
glimpse  of  her  figure.  To  my  astonishment  and 
even  to  my  dismay  she  was  still  in  the  gown  she 
had  refused  to  have  me  unlace, — a  rich  yellow 
satin  in  which  she  must  have  shone  resplendent  a 
few  hours  before.  She  had  not  even  removed  the 
jewels  from  her  neck.  Whatever  had  occupied  her, 
whatever  had  taken  her  hither  and  thither  through 
the  house,  moving  furniture  out  of  her  way,  lift 
ing  heavy  boxes,  opening  dust-covered  trunks,  had 
been  of  such  moment  to  her  as  to  make  her  en 
tirely  oblivious  of  the  rich  and  delicate  apparel 
she  thus  wantonly  sacrificed.  But  it  was  not  this 
alone  which  attracted  my  attention.  In  her  hand 
she  held  a  paper,  and  the  sight  of  that  paper 
and  the  way  she  clutched  it  rather  disturbed  my 
late  conclusions.  Had  her  errand  been  one  of 
search  rather  than  of  arrangement?  and  was  this 
crumpled  letter  the  sole  result  of  a  half-hour's 
ransacking  in  an  attic  room  at  the  dead  of  night? 
in 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  was  fain  to  think  so,  for  in  the  course  of  another 
half-hour  her  light  went  out.  Relieved  that  she 
had  not  left  the  house,  I  was  still  anxious  as  to  the 
cause  of  her  strange  conduct. 

Mayor  Packard  did  not  come  in  till  daybreak. 
He  found  me  waiting  for  him  in  the  lower  hall. 

"Well?"  he  eagerly  inquired. 

"Mrs.  Packard  is  asleep,  I  hope.  A  shrill  laugh, 
ringing  through  the  house  shortly  after  her  re 
turn,  gave  her  a  nervous  shock  and  she  begged 
that  she  might  be  left  undisturbed  till  morning." 

He  turned  from  hanging  up  his  overcoat,  and 
gave  me  a  short  stare. 

"A  laugh!"  he  repeated.  "Who  could  have 
laughed  like  that?  We  are  not  a  very  jolly  crowd 
here." 

"I  don't  know,  sir.  I  thought  it  must  have  been 
either  Mr.  Steele  or  Nixon,  the  butler,  but  each 
denied  it.  There  was  no  one  else  in  this  part  of 
the  house." 

The  mayor's  shoulders  rose. 

"Mrs.  Packard  is  very  sensitive  just  now,"  he 
112 


A  MOVING  SHADOW 

remarked.  Then  as  he  turned  away  toward  the 
library  door:  "I  will  throw  myself  on  a  lounge. 
I  have  but  an  hour  or  two  of  rest  before  me,  as  I 
have  my  preparations  to  make  for  leaving  town 
on  the  early  morning  train.  Come  to  my  office  at 
nine  o'clock,  Miss  Saunders.  I  shall  have  some 
final  instructions  to  give  you." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    PAEAGRAPH 

I  was  up  betimes.  Would  Mrs.  Packard  appear 
at  breakfast?  I  hardly  thought  so.  Yet  who 
knows?  Such  women  have  great  recuperative  pow 
ers,  and  from  one  so  mysteriously  affected  any 
thing  might  be  expected.  Ready  at  eight,  I 
hastened  down  to  the  second  floor  to  find  the  lady, 
concerning  whom  I  had  had  these  doubts,  await 
ing  me  on  the  threshold  of  her  room.  She  was 
carefully  dressed  and  looked  pale  enough  to  have 
been  up  for  hours.  An  envelope  was  in  her  hand, 
and  the  smile  which  hailed  my  approach  was  cold 
and  constrained. 

"Good  morning,"  said  she.  "Let  us  go  down. 
Let  us  go  down  together.  I  slept  wretchedly  and 
do  not  feel  very  strong.  When  did  Mr.  Packard 
come  in?" 

"Late.  He  went  directly  to  the  library.  He 
114 


THE  PARAGRAPH 

said  that  he  had  but  a  short  time  in  which  to  rest, 
and  would  take  what  sleep  he  could  get  on  the 
lounge,  when  I  told  him  of  your  very  natural 
nervous  attack." 

She  sighed — a  sigh  which  came  from  no  incon 
siderable  depths — then  with  a  proud  and  resolute 
gesture  preceded  me  down-stairs. 

Her  husband  was  already  in  the  breakfast-room. 
I  could  hear  his  voice  as  we  turned  at  the  foot 
of  the  stairs.  Mrs.  Packard,  hearing  it,  too,  drew 
herself  up  still  more  firmly  and  was  passing  bravely 
forward,  when  Nixon's  gray  head  protruded  from 
the  doorway  and  I  heard  him  say : 

"There's  company  for  breakfast,  ma'am.  His 
Honor  could  not  spare  Mr.  Steele  and  asked  me  to 
set  a  place  for  him." 

I  noted  a  momentary  hesitation  on  Mrs.  Pack 
ard's  part,  then  she  silently  acquiesced  and  we  both 
passed  on.  In  another  instant  we  were  receiving 
the  greetings  and  apologies  of  the  gentlemen.  If 
Mr.  Steele  had  expected  that  his  employer's  wife 
would  offer  him  her  hand,  he  was  disappointed. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"I  am  happy  to  welcome  one  who  has  proved 
so  useful  to  my  husband,"  she  remarked  with  cool 
though  careful  courtesy  as  we  all  sat  down  at  the 
table ;  and,  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  she  pro 
ceeded  to  pour  the  coffee  with  a  proud  grace  which 
gave  no  hint  of  the  extreme  feeling  by  which  I 
had  seen  her  moved  the  night  before. 

Had  I  known  her  better  I  might  have  found 
something  extremely  unnatural  in  her  manner  and 
the  very  evident  restraint  she  put  upon  herself 
through  the  whole  meal;  but  not  having  any 
acquaintance  with  her  ordinary  bearing  under 
conditions  purely  social,  I  was  thrown  out  of  my 
calculations  by  the  cold  ease  with  which  she  presided 
at  her  end  of  the  table,  and  the  set  smile  with 
which  she  greeted  all  remarks,  whether  volunteered 
by  her  husband  or  by  his  respectful  but  affable 
secretary.  I  noticed,  however,  that  she  ate  little. 

Nixon,  whom  I  dared  not  watch,  did  not  serve 

with  his  usual  precision, — this  I  perceived  from  the 

surprised  look  cast  at  him  by  Mayor  Packard  on 

at  least  two  occasions.   Though  to  the  ordinary  eye 

116 


THE  PARAGRAPH 

a  commonplace  meal,  it  had  elements  of  tragedy 
in  it  which  made  the  least  movement  on  the  part 
of  those  engaged  in  it  of  real  moment  to  me.  I 
was  about  to  leave  the  table  unenlightened,  how 
ever,  when  Mrs.  Packard  rose  and,  drawing  a  let 
ter  from  under  the  tray  before  which  she  sat,  let 
her  glances  pass  from  one  gentleman  to  the  other 
with  a  look  of  decided  inquiry.  I  drew  in  my 
breath  and  by  dropping  my  handkerchief  sought 
an  excuse  for  lingering  in  the  room  an  instant 
longer. 

"Will — may  I  ask  one  of  you,"  she  stammered 
with  her  first  show  of  embarrassment  during  the 
meal,  "to — to  post  this  letter  for  me?" 

Both  gentlemen  were  standing  and  both  gentle 
men  reached  for  it;  but  it  was  into  the  secretary's 
hand  she  put  it,  though  her  husband's  was  much 
the  nearer.  As  Mr.  Steele  received  it  he  gave  it 
the  casual  glance  natural  under  the  circumstances, 
• — a  glance  which  instantly,  however,  took  on  an 
air  of  surprise  that  ended  in  a  smile. 

"Have  you  not  made  some  mistake?"  he  asked. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"This  does  not  look  like  a  letter."    And  he  handed 
her  back  the  paper  she  had  given  him. 

With  an  involuntary  ingathering  of  her  breath, 
she  seemed  to  wake  out  of  some  dream  and,  looking 
down  at  the  envelope  she  held,  she  crushed  it  in 
her  hand  with  a  little  laugh  in  which  I  heard  the 
note  of  real  gaiety  for  the  first  time. 

"Pardon  me,"  she  exclaimed ;  and,  meeting  his 
amused  gaze  with  one  equally  expressive,  she  care 
lessly  added:  "I  certainly  brought  a  letter  down 
with  me." 

Bowing  pleasantly,  but  with  that  indefinable  air 
of  respect  which  bespeaks  the  stranger,  he  waited 
while  she  hastened  back  to  the  tray  and  drew  from 
under  it  a  second  paper. 

"Pardon  my  carelessness,"  she  said.  "I  must 
have  caught  up  a  scrawl  of  the  baby's  in  taking 
this  from  my  desk." 

She   brought   forward   a   letter   and   ended   the 
whole  remarkable  episode  by  handing  it  now  to 
her  husband,  who,  with  an  apologetic  glance  at  the 
other,  put  it  in  his  pocket. 
118 


THE  PARAGRAPH 

I  say  remarkable;  for  in  the  folded  slip  which 
had  passed  back  and  forth  between  her  and  the 
secretary,  I  saw,  or  thought  I  saw,  a  likeness  to 
the  paper  she  had  brought  the  night  before  out 
of  the  attic. 

If  Mayor  Packard  saw  anything  unusual  in  his 
wife's  action  he  made  no  mention  of  it  when  I  went 
into  his  study  at  nine  o'clock.  And  it  was  so  much 
cf  an  enigma  to  me  that  I  was  not  ready  to  venture 
a  question  regarding  it. 

Her  increased  spirits  and  more  natural  conduct 
were  the  theme  of  the  few  sentences  he  addressed 
me,  and  while  he  urged  precaution  and  a  continued 
watch  upon  his  wife,  he  expressed  the  fondest 
hope  that  he  should  find  her  fully  restored  on  his 
return  at  the  end  of  two  weeks. 

I  encouraged  his  hopes,  and  possibly  shared 
them ;  but  I  changed  my  mind,  as  he  probably  did 
his,  when  a  few  minutes  later  we  met  her  in  the 
hall  hurrying  toward  us  with  a  newspaper  in  her 
hand  and  a  ghastly  look  on  her  face. 

"See !  see !  what  they  have  dared  to  print !"  she 
119 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

cried,  with  a  look,  full  of  anguish,  into  his  bewil 
dered  face. 

He  took  the  sheet,  read,  and  flushed,  then  sud 
denly  grew  white. 

"Outrageous!"  he  exclaimed.  Then  tenderly, 
"My  poor  darling!  that  they  should  dare  to  drag 
your  name  into  this  abominable  campaign!" 

"And  for  no  reason,"  she  faltered;  "there  is 
nothing  wrong  with  me.  You  believe  that;  you 
are  sure  of  that,"  she  cried. 

I  saw  the  article  later.  It  ran  something  like 
this: 

"Rumor  has  it  that  not  even  our  genial  mayor's  closet 
is  free  from  the  proverbial  skeleton.  Mrs.  Packard's 
health  is  not  what  it  was, — and  some  say  that  the 
causes  are  not  purely  physical." 

He  tried  to  dissimulate.  Putting  his  arm  about 
her,  he  kissed  her  fondly  and  protested  with  min 
gled  energy  and  feeling : 

"I  believe  you  to  be  all  you  should  be — a  true 
woman  and  true  wife." 

Her  face  lighted  and  she  clung  for  a  moment  in 
120 


THE  PARAGRAPH 

passionate  delight  to  his  breast;  then  she  caught 
his  look,  which  was  tender  but  not  altogether  open, 
and  the  shadows  fell  again  as  she  murmured: 

"You  are  not  satisfied.  Oh,  what  do  you  see — 
what  do  others  see,  that  I  should  be  the  subject  of 
doubt?  Tell  me!  I  can  never  right  myself  till 
I  know." 

"I  see  a  troubled  face  when  I  should  see  a  happy 
one,"  he  answered  lightly;  then,  as  she  still  clung 
in  very  evident  question  to  his  arm,  he  observed 
gravely:  "Two  weeks  ago  you  were  the  life  of 
this  house,  and  of  every  other  house  into  which 
your  duties  carried  you.  Why  shouldn't  you  be 
the  same  to-day?  Answer  me  that,  dear,  and  all 
my  doubts  will  vanish,  I  assure  you." 

"Henry," — drooping  her  head  and  lacing  her 
fingers  in  and  out  with  nervous  hesitation, — "you 
will  think  me  very  foolish, — I  know  that  it  will 
sound  foolish,  childish  even,  and  utterly  ridiculous ; 
but  I  can  explain  myself  no  other  way.  I  have 
had  a  frightful  experience — here — in  my  own 
house — on  the  spot  where  I  have  been  so  happy, 
121 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

so  unthinkingly  happy.  Henry — do  not  laugh — 
it  is  real,  very  real,  to  me.  The  specter  which  is 
said  to  haunt  these  walls  has  revealed  itself  to  me. 
7  have  seen  the  ghost." 


122 


CHAPTER  IX 

SCEAPS 

We  did  not  laugh ;  we  did  not  even  question  her 
sanity;  at  least  I  did  not, — there  was  too  much 
meaning  in  her  manner. 

"A  specter,"  her  husband  repeated  with  a  sug 
gestive  glance  at  the  brilliant  sunshine  in  which 
we  all  stood. 

"Yes."  The  tone  was  one  of  utter  conviction. 
"I  had  never  believed  in  such  things — never 
thought  about  them,  but — it  was  a  week  ago — in 
the  library — I  have  not  seen  a  happy  moment 
since — " 

"My  darling!" 

"Yes,  yes,  I  know ;  but  imagine !  I  was  sitting 
reading.  I  had  just  come  from  the  nursery,  and 
the  memory  of  Laura's  good-night  kiss  was  more 
in  my  mind  than  the  story  I  was  finishing  when — 
oh,  I  can  not  think  of  it  without  a  shudder! — the 
123 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

page  before  me  seemed  to  recede  and  the  words 
fade  away  in  a  blue  mist ;  glancing  up  I  beheld  the 
outlines  of  a  form  between  me  and  the  lamp,  which 
a  moment  before  had  been  burning  brightly.  Out 
lines,  Henry, — I  was  conscious  of  no  substance, 
and  the  eyes  which  met  mine  from  that  shadowy, 
blood-curdling  Something  were  those  of  the  grave 
and  meant  a  grave  for  you  or  for  me.  Oh,  I 
know  what  I  say !  There  was  no  mistaking  their 
look.  As  it  burned  into  and  through  me,  every 
thing  which  had  given  reality  to  my  life  faded 
and  seemed  as  far  away  and  as  unsubstantial  as  a 
dream.  Nor  has  its  power  over  me  gone  yet.  I 
go  about  amongst  you,  I  eat,  I  sleep,  or  try  to; 
I  greet  men,  talk  with  women,  but  it  is  all  unreal, 
all  phantasmagoric,  even  yourself  and  your  love 
and,  O  God,  my  baby !  What  is  real  and  distinct 
ive,  an  absolute  part  of  me  and  my  life,  is  that 
shape  from  the  dead,  with  its  threatening  eyes 
which  pierce — pierce — " 

She  was  losing  her  self-control.     Her  husband, 
with  a  soothing  touch  on  her  arm,  brought  her 

back  to  the  present. 

124 


SCRAPS 

"You  speak  of  a  form,"  he  said,  "a  shadowy 
outline.  The  form  of  what?  A  man  or  a  woman?" 

"A  man!  a  man!"  With  the  exclamation  she 
seemed  to  shrink  into  herself  and  her  eyes,  just 
now  deprecating  and  appealing,  took  on  a  hollow 
stare,  as  if  the  vision  she  described  had  risen  again 
before  her. 

In  spite  of  himself  and  the  sympathy  he  un 
doubtedly  felt  for  her,  an  ejaculation  of  impa 
tience  left  her  husband's  lips.  Obligations  very 
far  removed  from  the  fantasies  of  a  disturbed  mind 
made  these  unsubstantial  fears  of  hers  seem  puerile 
enough  to  this  virile,  outspoken  man.  No  doubt 
she  heard  it,  and  to  stop  the  matter-of-fact  pro 
test  on  his  lips  added  quickly: 

"Not  the  form,  face  and  eyes  of  a  man,  as  they 
usually  appear.  Hell  was  in  his  gaze  and  the 
message  he  gave,  if  it  was  a  message,  was  one  of 
disaster,  if  not  death.  Do  you  wonder  that  my 
happiness  vanished  before  it?  That  I  can  not 
be  myself  since  that  dreadful  day?" 

The  mayor  was  a  practical  man;  he  kept  close 

to  the  subject. 

125 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"You  saw  this  form  between  you  and  the  lighted 
lamp.  How  long  did  it  stay  there  and  what  be 
came  of  it?" 

"I  can  not  tell  you.  One  moment  it  was  there 
and  the  next  it  was  gone,  and  I  found  myself  star 
ing  into  vacancy.  I  seem  to  be  staring  there  still, 
waiting  for  the  blow  destined  to  shatter  this  house 
hold." 

"Nonsense !  give  me  a  kiss  and  fix  your  thoughts 
on  something  more  substantial.  What  we  have 
to  fear  and  all  we  have  to  fear  is  that  I  may  lose 
my  election.  And  that  won't  kill  me,  whatever 
effect  it  may  have  on  the  party." 

"Henry," — her  voice  had  changed  to  one  more 
natural,  also  her  manner.  The  confidence  ex 
pressed  in  this  outburst,  the  vitality,  the  masculine 
attitude  he  took  were  producing  their  effect.  "You 
don't  believe  in  what  I  saw  or  in  my  fears.  Per 
haps  you  are  right.  I  am  ready  to  acknowledge 
this ;  I  will  try  to  look  upon  it  all  as  a  freak  of  my 
imagination  if  you  will  promise  to  forget  these 
dreadful  days,  and  if  people,  other  people,  will 
126 


Find  out  who  did  that."      Page  I2J 


SCRAPS 

leave  me  alone  and  not  print  sucK  things  about 


"I  am  ready  to  do  my  part,"  was  his  glad  re 
ply,  "and  as  for  the  other  people  you  mention, 
we  shall  soon  bring  them  to  book."  Raising  his 
voice,  he  called  out  his  secretary's  name. 

As  it  rang  loud  and  cheery  down  the  hall,  the 
joy  and  renewed  life  which  had  been  visible  in  her 
manner  lost  some  of  their  brightness. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  she  gasped,  witK 
the  quickness  of  doubt  and  strong  if  reasonless 
apprehension. 

"Give  an  order,"  he  explained ;  then,  as  the  sec 
retary  appeared  at  our  end  of  the  hall,  he  held 
out  the  journal  which  he  had  taken  from  his  wife 
and  indicating  the  offensive  paragraph,  said: 

"Find  out  who  did  that." 

Mr.  Steele  with  a  surprised  look  ran  his  eyes 
over  the  paragraph,  knitting  his  brows  as  he  did 


so. 


"It  is  calumny,"  fell  from  Mrs.  Packard's  lips 

as  she  watched  him. 

127 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Most  certainly,"  he  assented,  with'  an  energy 
which  brought  a  flush  of  pleasure  to  the  humiliated 
woman's  cheek.  "It  will  detain  me  two  days  or 
more  to  follow  up  this  matter,"  he  remarked,  with 
a  look  of  inquiry  directed  at  Mayor  Packard. 

"Never  mind.  Two  days  or  a  week,  it  is  all  one. 
I  would  rather  lose  votes  than  pass  over  such  an 
insult.  Pin  me  down  the  man  who  has  dared  at 
tack  me  through  my  wife,  and  you  will  do  me  the 
greatest  favor  one  man  can  show  another." 

Mr.  Steele  bowed. 

"I  can  not  forego  the  final  consultation  we  had 
planned  to  hold  on  the  train.  May  I  ride  down 
with  you  to  the  station?" 

"Certainly ;  most  happy." 

Mr.  Steele  withdrew,  after  casting  a  glance  of 
entirely  respectful  sympathy  at  the  woman  who 
up  to  this  hour  had  faced  the  world  without  a 
shadow  between  her  and  it;  and,  marking  the  lin 
gering  nature  of  the  look  with  which  the  mayor 
now  turned  on  his  wife,  I  followed  the  secretary's 
example  and  left  them  to  enjoy  their  few  last 

words   alone. 

128 


SCRAPS 

Verily  the  pendulum  of  events  swung  wide  and 
fast  in  this  house. 

This  conclusion  was  brought  back  to  me  with 
fresh  insistence  a  few  minutes  later,  when,  on  hear 
ing  the  front  door  shut,  I  stepped  to  the  balus 
trade  and  looked  over  to  see  if  Mrs.  Packard  was 
coming  up.  She  was  not,  for  I  saw  her  go  into  the 
library;  but  plainly  on  the  marble  pavement  be 
low,  just  where  we  had  all  been  standing,  in  fact, 
I  perceived  the  piece  of  paper  she  had  brought 
with  her  from  the  dining-room  and  had  doubtless 
dropped  in  the  course  of  the  foregoing  conversa 
tion. 

Running  down  in  great  haste,  I  picked  it  up. 
This  scrap  of  I  knew  not  what,  but  which  had 
been  the  occasion  of  the  enigmatic  scene  I  had  wit 
nessed  at  the  breakfast-table,  necessarily  interested 
me  very  much  and  I  could  not  help  giving  it  a 
look.  I  saw  that  it  was  inscribed  with  Hebraic- 
looking  characters  as  unlike  as  possible  to  the 
scrawl  of  a  little  child. 

With  no  means  of  knowing  whether  they  were 
129 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

legible  or  not,  these  characters  made  a  surprising 
impression  upon  me,  one,  indeed,  that  was  almost 
photographic. 

I  also  noted  that  these  shapes  or  characters,  of 
which  there  were  just  seven,  were  written  on  the 
face  of  an  empty  envelope.  This  decided  any 
doubts  I  may  have  had  as  to  its  identity  with  the 
paper  she  had  brought  down  from  the  attic.  That 
had  been  a  square  sheet,  which  even  if  folded  would 
fail  to  enter  this  long  and  narrow  envelope.  The 
interest  which  I  had  felt  when  I  thought  the  two 
identical  was  a  false  interest.  Yet  I  could  not  but 
believe  that  this  scrap  had  a  value  of  its  own  equal 
to  the  one  with  which,  under  this  misapprehension, 
I  had  invested  it. 

Carrying  it  back  to  Mrs.  Packard,  I  handed  it 
over  with  the  remark  that  I  had  found  it  lying  in 
the  hall.  She  cast  a  quick  look  at  it,  gave  me  an 
other  look  and  tossed  the  paper  into  the  grate.  As 
it  caught  fire  and  flared  up,  the  characters  start 
ed  vividly  into  view. 

This  second  glimpse  of  them,  added  to  the  one 
130 


SCRAPS 

already  given  me,  fixed  the  whole  indelibly  in  my 
mind.     This  is  the  way  they  looked. 

O  V  Q>  VL)_< 

While  I  watched  these  cabalistic  marks  pass 
from  red  to  black  and  finally  vanish  in  a  wild  leap 
up  the  chimney,  Mrs.  Packard  remarked: 

"I  wish  I  could  destroy  the  memory  of  all  nry] 
mistakes  as  completely  as  I  can  that  old  envelope." 

I  did  not  answer;  I  was  watching  the  weary 
droop  of  her  hand  over  the  arm  of  her  chair. 

"You  are  tired,  Mrs.  Packard,"  was  my  sym 
pathetic  observation.  "Will  you  not  take  a  nap? 
I  will  gladly  sit  by  you  and  read  you  to  sleep." 

"No,  no,"  she  cried,  at  once  alert  and  active; 
"no  sleep.  Look  at  that  pile  of  correspondence, 
half  of  it  on  charitable  matters.  Now  that  I  feel 
better,  now  that  I  have  relieved  my  mind,  I  must 
look  over  my  letters  and  try  to  take  up  the  old 
threads  again." 

"Can  I  help  you?"  I  aske'd. 

"Possibly.    If  you  will  go  to  my  room  up-stairs, 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  will  join  you  after  I  have  sorted  and  read  my 
mail." 

I  was  glad  to  obey  this  order.  I  had  a  curi 
osity  about  her  room.  It  had  been  the  scene  of 
much  I  did  not  understand  the.  night  before. 
Should  I  find  any  traces  there  of  that  search  which 
had  finally  ended  over  my  head  in  the  attic? 

I  was  met  at  the  door  by  Ellen.  She  wore  a 
look  of  dismay  which  I  felt  fully  accounted  for 
when  I  looked  inside.  Disorder  reigned  from  one 
end  of  the  room  to  the  other,  transcending  any 
picture  I  may  have  formed  in  my  own  mind  con 
cerning  its  probable  condition.  Mrs.  Packard  must 
have  forgotten  all  this  disarray,  or  at  least  had  sup 
posed  it  to  have  yielded  to  the  efforts  of  the  maid, 
when  she  proposed  my  awaiting  her  there.  There 
were  bureau-drawers  with  their  contents  half  on 
the  floor,  boxes  with  their  covers  off,  cupboard- 
doors  ajar  and  even  the  closet  shelves  showing 
every  mark  of  a  frenzied  search  among  them. 
Her  rich  gown,  soiled  to  the  width  of  half  a  foot 
around  the  bottom,  lay  with  cut  laces  and  its  trira- 
132 


SCRAPS 

mings  in  rags  under  a  chair  which  had  been 
knocked  over  and  left  where  it  fell.  Even  her  jew 
els  had  not  been  put  away,  but  lay  scattered  on 
the  dresser.  Ellen  looked  ashamed  and,  when  I 
retired  to  the  one  bare  place  I  saw  in  the  bay  of 
the  window,  muttered  as  she  plunged  to  lift  one 
of  the  great  boxes: 

"It's  as  bad  as  the  attic  room  up-stairs.  All 
the  trunks  have  been  emptied  on  to  the  floor  and 
one  held  her  best  summer  dresses.  What  shall  I 
do?  I  have  a  whole  morning's  work  before  me." 

"Let  me  help  you,"  I  proposed,  rising  with  sud 
den  alacrity.  My  eyes  had  just  fallen  on  a  small 
desk  at  my  right,  also  on  the  floor  beneath  and 
around  it.  Here,  there  and  everywhere  above  and 
below  lay  scraps  of  torn-up  paper;  and  on  many, 
if  not  on  all  of  them,  could  be  seen  the  broken 
squares  and  inverted  angles  which  had  marked  so 
curiously  the  surface  of  the  envelope  she  had 
handed  to  Mr.  Steele,  and  which  I  had  afterward 
seen  her  burn. 

"A  baby  can  make  a  deal  of  mess,"  I  remarked, 
133 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

hurriedly  collecting  these  scraps  and  making  a 
motion  of  throwing  them  into  the  waste-paper  bas 
ket,  but  hiding  them  in  my  blouse  instead. 

"The  baby !  Oh,  the  baby  never  did  that.  She's 
too  young." 

;  "Oh,  I  didn't  know.  I  haven't  seen  much  of  the 
child  though  I  heard  her  cry  once  in  the  nursery. 
How  old  is  she  ?" 

"Twenty  months  and  such  a  darling!  You 
never  saw  such  curls  or  such  eyes.  Why,  look  at 
this !" 

"What?"  I  (demanded,  hurrying  to  the  closet, 
where  Ellen  stood  bending  over  something  invis 
ible  to  me. 

"Oh,  nothing,"  she  answered,  coming  quickly 
out.  But  in  another  moment,  her  tongue  getting 
the  better  of  her  discretion,  she  blurted  out :  "Do 
you  suppose  Mrs.  Packard  had  any  idea  of  going 
with  the  mayor?  Her  bag  is  in  there  almost 
packed.  I  was  wondering  where  all  her  toilet  arti 
cles  were.  That  accounts — "  Stopping,  she  cast 
a  glance  around  the  room,  ending  with  a  shake  of 
134 


SCRAPS 


the  head  and  a  shrug.  "She  needn't  have  pulled 
out  all  her  things,"  she  sharply  complained.  "Cer 
tain,  she  is  a  mysterious  lady, — as  queer  as  she  is 
kind." 


CHAPTER  X 

A    GLIMMER  OF  THE   TRUTH 

This  was  a  sentiment  I  could  thoroughly  in- 
idorse.  Mrs.  Packard  was  certainly  an  enigma  to 
me.  Leaving  Ellen  to  finish  her  work,  I  went  up 
stairs  to  my  own  room,  and,  taking  out  the  scraps 
of  paper  I  had  so  carefully  collected,  spread  them 
out  before  me  on  the  lid  of  the  desk. 

They  were  absolutely  unintelligible  to  me — 
marks  and  nothing  more.  Useless  to  waste  time 
over  such  unmeaning  scrawls  when  I  had  other 
and  more  tangible  subjects  to  consider.  But  I 
should  not  destroy  them.  There  might  come  a  time 
when  I  should  be  glad  to  give  them  the  attention 
which  my  present  excitement  forbade.  Putting 
them  back  in  my  desk,  I  settled  myself  into  a  se 
rious  contemplation  of  the  one  fact  which  seemed 
to  give  a  partial  if  not  wholly  satisfactory  expla 
nation  of  Mrs.  Packard's  peculiar  conduct  during 

136 


A  GLIMMER  OF   THE   TRUTH 

the  last  two  weeks — her  belief  that  she  had  been 
visited  by  a  specter  of  an  unholy,  threatening  as 
pect. 

That  it  was  a  belief  and  nothing  more  seemed 
sufficiently  clear  to  me  in  the  cold-blooded  analy 
sis  to  which  I  now  subjected  the  whole  matter. 

Phantoms  have  no  place  in  the  economy  of  na 
ture.  That  Mrs.  Packard  thought  herself  the  vic 
tim  of  one  was  simply  a  proof  of  how  deeply, 
though  perhaps  unconsciously,  she  had  been 
affected  by  the  traditions  of  the  house.  Such 
sensitiveness  in  a  mind  naturally  firm  and  uncom 
monly  well  poised,  called  for  attention.  Yet  a 
physician  had  asserted  that  he  could  do  nothing 
for  her.  Granting  that  he  was  mistaken,  would 
an  interference  of  so  direct  and  unmistakable  a 
character  be  wise  in  the  present  highly  strung  con 
dition  of  her  nerves  ?  I  doubted  it.  It  would  show 
too  plainly  the  light  in  which  we  regarded  her. 
I  dared  not  undertake  the  responsibility  of  such  a 
course  in  Mayor  Packard's  absence.  Some  other 
way  must  be  found  to  quiet  her  apprehensions  and 
'37 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

bring  her  into  harmony  again  with  her  surround 
ings.  I  knew  of  only  one  course.  If  the  influence 
of  the  house  had  brought  on  this  hallucination, 
then  the  influence  of  the  house  must  be  destroyed. 
She  must  be  made  to  see  that,  despite  its  unfortu 
nate  reputation,  no  specter  had  ever  visited  it ;  that 
some  purely  natural  cause  was  at  the  bottom  of 
the  various  manifestations  which  had  successively 
driven  away  all  previous  tenants. 

Could  I  hope  to  effect  this?  It  was  an  under 
taking  of  no  small  moment.  Had  I  the  necessary 
judgment?  I  doubted  it,  but  my  ambition  was 
roused.  While  Mr.  Steele  was  devoting  himself  to 
the  discovery  of  Mayor  and  Mrs.  Packard's  po 
litical  enemy,  I  would  essay  the  more  difficult  task 
of  penetrating  the  mystery  threatening  their  do 
mestic  peace.  I  could  but  fail ;  a  few  inquiries 
would  assure  me  of  the  folly  or  the  wisdom  of  my 
course. 

Having  reached  this  point  and  satisfied  myself 
as  to  my  real  duty,  I  rose  to  leave  my  room  for 
another  word  or  two  with  Ellen.  As  I  'did  so  my 
138 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

eyes  fell  on  the  shade  still  drawn  between  me  and 
the  next  house.  The  impulse  to  raise  it  was  irre 
sistible.  I  must  see  if  either  of  the  two  old  faces 
still  occupied  that  gable  window.  It  was  not  like 
ly.  It  was  not  in  ordinary  human  nature  to  keep 
up  so  unremitting  a  watch.  Yet  as  the  shade 
flew  up  at  my  touch  I  realized  that  my  astonish 
ment  would  have  been  great  and  my  expectations 
altogether  disappointed  if  I  had  not  encountered 
the  fixed  countenance  and  the  set  stare  with  which 
I  had  come  to  connect  this  solitary  window.  Miss 
Charity  was  there,  and,  though  I  now  knew  what 
underlay  her  senile,  if  not  utterly  mad  watch, 
the  impression  made  upon  me  by  her  hopeless  coun 
tenance  was  as  keen  as  it  had  ever  been,  and  lent 
point  and  impetus  to  the  task  I  had  just  set  for 
myself. 

It  was  apparent  that  Mrs.  Packard  had  for 
gotten  or  changed  her  mind  about  joining  me  in 
her  own  room,  but  nevertheless  I  went  out,  to  dis 
cover  what  possible  duties  she  might  have  laid  out 
for  me.  Ascertaining  from  Ellen  that  Mrs.  Pack- 
139 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ard  had  engagements  which  would  take  her  out  at 
noon,  I  waited  for  that  hour  to  pass,  then  excused 
myself  and  went  out  also. 

The  owner  of  the  house  whose  shaded  history  I 
was  now  determined  to  learn  was  John  S carles,  a 
real  estate  agent.  To  his  office  in  Main  Street  I 
at  once  proceeded,  not  without  doubts  and  much 
inward  trepidation,  but  buoyed  up  by  the  assurance 
of  Mayor  Packard's  approval  of  any  attempt,  how 
ever  far-fetched  or  unpromising,  which  held  out 
the  least  possibility  of  relieving  Mrs.  Packard  from 
her  superstitious  fears  and  restoring  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  the  household.  If  only  Mr.  Searles 
should  prove  to  be  an  approachable  man ! 

I  had  never  seen  him  or  heard  him  spoken  of,  or 
I  should  not  have  encouraged  myself  with  this 
hope.  At  my  first  glimpse  of  his  tall,  gaunt  figure, 
hard  features,  and  brisk  impatient  movements,  I 
knew  that  my  wit  and  equanimity  would  be  put 
to  their  full  test  in  the  interview. 

He  was  engaged,  at  my  entrance,  in  some  harsh 
dispute  with  a  couple  of  other  men,  but  came  for- 
140 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

ward  quickly  enough  when  he  saw  me.  Recogniz 
ing  at  once  that  any  attempt  at  ingratiation 
would  fail  with  this  man,  I  entered  at  once  upon 
my  errand  by  asking  a  question  direct  enough  to 
command  his  attention,  if  it  did  nq»t  insure  the 
desired  reply. 

"Mr.  Searles,  when  you  purchased  the  house  on 
Franklin  Street?  did  you  know  enough  about  it  to 
have  an  answer  ready  for  any  one  who  might  de 
clare  it  haunted?" 

The  abruptness  of  the  attack  produced  its  ef 
fect.  Annoyance  swept  every  hint  of  patience  from 
face  and  manner,  and  he  exclaimed  in  a  tone  which 
conveyed,  only  too  openly,  how  disagreeable  the 
subject  was  to  him: 

"Again  1" 

I  smiled.  It  would  not  do  to  show  how  much  I 
felt  the  total  lack  of  sympathy  in  his  manner. 

"You  will  have  trouble,"  said  I,  "until  it  is 
proved  that  the  occurrences  which  have  provoked 
this  report  have  a  very  natural  and  quite  human 


14* 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

He  stopped  in  his  nervous  fidgeting  and  gave  me 
a  quick  hard  look. 

"Who  are  you?"  he  asked,  "and  why  has  Mrs. 
Packard  made  you  her  messenger  instead  of  com 
ing  herself?" 

"I  am  her  companion,  engaged  by  Mayor  Pack 
ard  to  stay  with  her  during  his  contemplated  ab 
sence.  I  am  here  instead  of  Mrs.  Packard  because 
it  is  she  herself  who  is  the  present  sufferer  from  the 
disagreeable  experiences  which  attend  life  in  the 
Franklin  Street  house." 

"Mrs.  Packard?"  His  tone  betrayed  a  com 
plete  incredulity.  "Mrs.  Packard?  a  woman  of 
such  strong  good  sense!  I  think  you  must  have 
been  misled  by  some  foolish  attempt  at  humor 
on  her  part.  Does  she  know  that  you  have  come 
to  me  with  this  complaint?" 

"She  does  not.  She  is  not  in  a  condition  to  be 
consulted  on  the  subject.  I  am  Mayor  Packard's 
emissary.  He  is  very  anxious  about  his  wife." 
Then  as  Mr.  Searles  continued  unmoved,  I  added 
in  a  straightforward  manner,  and  with  all  the 
142 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

earnestness  I  felt:  "Mrs.  Packard  believes  herself 
to  have  come  face  to  face  with  an  undoubted  spec 
ter  in  the  library  of  the  house  they  have  rented 
from  you.  She  related  the  circumstances  to  her 
husband  and  to  myself  this  very  morning.  It  oc 
curred,  according  to  her  story,  several  days  ago; 
meantime  her  manner  and  appearance  have  shown 
a  great  change.  Mayor  Packard  is  not  the  only 
one  who  has  noticed  it.  The  whole  household  has 
been  struck  by  her  condition,  though  no  one  knew 
its  cause  until  to-day.  Of  course,  we  do  not  be 
lieve  in  the  specter;  that  was  pure  hallucination 
on  her  part.  This  we  no  more  doubt  than  you  do." 

"Then  what  do  you  want  here?"  he  asked,  af 
ter  a  moment  of  harsh  scrutiny. 

"Proof  which  will  convince  her  that  it  was  an 
hallucination  and  without  the  least  basis  in  any 
spiritual  fact,"  I  returned.  "If  you  will  give  me 
a  few  minutes  of  your  time,  I  will  explain  just 
what  I  mean  and  also  make  known  to  you  my 
wishes.  I  can  wait  till  you  have  finished  your 
business  with  the  gentlemen  I  see  over  there." 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

-  He  Honored  me  witR  a  look',  which  for  the  first 
time  showed  any  appreciation  of  my  feelings,  and 
pushing  open  a  door  near  by,  called  out  to  some 
one  within: 

"Here,  Robinson,  talk  with  this  lady.  Her  busi 
ness  is  not  in  my  line."  Then,  turning  to  me 
with  a  quick,  "Step  in,  Madam,"  he  left  me  with 
the  greatest  abruptness  and  hurried  back  to  the 
gentlemen  awaiting  him  on  the  other  side  of  the 
room. 

I  was  considerably  taken  aback  by  this  move, 
but  knew  no  other  course  than  to  enter  the  room 
he  had  pointed  out  and  pursue  my  conversation 
with  whomever  I  should  find  there. 

Alas!  the  gentleman  who  rose  at  my  entrance 
was  also  One  of  the  tall,  thin  and  nervous  type. 
But  he  was  not  without  heart,  like  the  other,  as 
was  soon  made  apparent  to  me.  Very  few  human 
faces  are  plainer  than  the  one  I  now  searched  for 
the  encouragement  of  which  I  stood  in  such  sore 
need,  but  also  ver}^  few  faces,  handsome  or  other 
wise,  have  the  attraction  of  so  pleasant  a  smile. 
144 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

Its  affable  greeting  was  followed  by  the  hasty 
pushing  forward  of  a  chair  and  a  kind  inquiry 
as  to  what  he  could  do  for  me. 

My  answer  woke  an  immediate  interest.  "My 
name  is  Saunders,"  I  said.  "I  am  at  present  an 
inmate  of  Mayor  Packard's  house — a  house  belong 
ing  to  Mr.  Searles,  and  one  which  has  its  draw 
backs." 

The  meaning  look  with  which  I  uttered  the  last 
sentence  called  forth  an  answering  one.  A  flash 
of  excitement  broke  over  his  features  and  he  cast 
a  quick  glance  at  the  door  which  fortunately  had 
swung  to  at  my  entrance. 

"Has — have  they — has  anything  of  a  'disagree 
able  nature  happened  to  any  one  in  this  house?" 
he  asked  with  ill-concealed  perturbation.  "I  did 
not  expect  it  during  their  tenantry,  but  if  sucK  has 
occurred,  I  am  obliged  to  Mrs.  Packard  for  letting 
me  know.  She  promised  to,  you  see,  and — " 

"She  promised!"  I  cried. 

"Yes;  in  joke  no  doubt,  being  at  the  time  in  a 
very  incredulous  state  of  mind.  She  vowed  that 
145 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

she  would  let  me  know  the  very  day  she  saw  the 
lights  or  encountered  anything  in  the  house,  which 
could  be  construed  into  a  spiritual  visitation.  Has 
such  a  manifestation  occurred?"  he  eagerly  in 
quired.  "Has  it?  has  it?  Am  I  to  add  her  name 
to  the  list  of  those  who  have  found  the  house  unin 
habitable?" 

"That  I  am  not  ready  to  say,"  was  my  cautious 
response.  "Mrs.  Packard,  during  the  period  of 
her  husband's  candidacy,  would  scarcely  wish  to 
draw  public  attention  to  herself  or  these  super 
natural  happenings  by  any  such  move.  I  hope 
that  what  I  say  to  you  on  this  subject  will  go  no 
further." 

"You  may  rest  assured  that  it  will  never  be 
come  public  property,"  he  assured  me.  "One  per 
son  I  am  bound  to  tell;  but  that  is  all.  That 
person  is  too  much  interested  in  the  house's  good 
name  to  spread  so  damaging  a  story.  An  experi 
ence,  more  or  less  disagreeable,  must  have  occurred 
to  some  member  of  the  family,"  continued  Mr.  Rob 
inson.  "Your  presence  here  assures  me  of  that. 
146 


A  GLIMMER   OF   THE   TRUTH 

What  kind  of  experience?  The — manifestations 
have  not  always  been  of  the  same  nature." 

"No;  and  that  is  what  so  engages  my  attention. 
These  experiences  differ  so  much  in  their  charac 
ter.  Do  you  happen  to  know  the  exact  nature  of 
each?  I  have  a  theory  which  I  Icng  to  substanti 
ate.  May  I  trust  you  with  it  ?" 

"You  certainly  may,  Miss.  No  one  has  thought 
over  this  matter  more  earnestly  than  I  have.  Not 
because  of  any  superstitious  tendency  on  my  part ; 
rather  from  the  lack  of  it.  I  don't  believe  in 
spirits.  I  don't  believe  in  supernatural  agencies 
of  any  kind;  yet  strange  things  do  happen  in 
that  house,  things  which  we  find  it  hard  to  ex 
plain." 

"Mrs.  Packard's  experience  was  this.  She  be 
lieves  herself  to  have  encountered  in  the  library 
the  specter  of  a  man;  a  specter  with  a  gaze  so 
terrifying  that  it  impressed  itself  upon  her  as  an 
omen  of  death,  or  some  other  dire  disaster.  What 
have  your  other  tenants  seen?" 

"Shadows  mostly;  but  not  always.  Sometimes 
147 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

the  outline  of  an  arm  projecting  out  of  darkness; 
sometimes,  the  trace  of  steps  on  the  hall  floors,  or 
the  discovery  in  the  morning  of  an  open  door 
which  had  been  carefully  closed  at  bedtime.  Once 
it  was  the  trailing  of  ghostly  fingers  across  the 
sleeper's  face,  and  once  a  §uccession  of  groans 
rising  from  the  lower  halls  and  drawing  the  whole 
family  from  their  beds,  to  find  no  one  but  them 
selves  within  the  whole  four  walls.  A  clearly  out 
lined  phantom  has  been  scarce.  But  Mrs.  Packard 
has  seen  one,  you  say." 

"Thinks  she  has  seen  one,"  I  corrected.  "Mayor 
Packard  and  myself  both  look  upon  the  occur 
rence  as  a  wholly  imaginary  one,  caused  by  her 
secret  brooding  over  the  very  manifestations  you 
mention.  If  she  could  be  convinced  that  these  man 
ifestations  had  a  physical  origin,  she  would  imme 
diately  question  the  reality  of  the  specter  she  now 
believes  herself  to  have  seen.  To  bring  her  to 
this  point  I  am  ready  to  exert  myself  to  the  utmost. 
Are  you  willing  to  do  the  same?  If  so,  I  can 
assure  you  of  Mayor  Packard's  appreciation." 
148 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

"How?  What?  You  believe  the  whole  thing 
a  fraud?  That  all  these  tenants  coming  from 
various  quarters  manufactured  all  these  stories  and 
submitted  to  endless  inconvenience  to  perpetuate 
a  senseless  lie?" 

"No,  I  don't  think  that.  The  tenants  were  hon 
est  enough,  but —  Who  owned  the  house  before 
Mr.  Searles?"  I  was  resolved  to  give  no  hint  of 
the  information  imparted  to  me  by  Mrs.  Packard. 

"The  Misses  Quinlan,  the  two  maiden  ladies  who 
live  next  door  to  Mayor  Packard." 

"I  don't  know  them,"  said  I  truthfully. 

"Very  worthy  women,"  Mr.  Robinson  assured 
me.  "They  are  as  much  disturbed  and  as  com 
pletely  puzzled  as  the  rest  of  us  over  the  mysterious 
visitations  which  have  lessened  the  value  of  their 
former  property.  They  have  asked  me  more  than 
once  for  an  explanation  of  its  marked  unpopu 
larity.  I  felt  foolish  to  say  ghosts,  but  finally  I 
found  myself  forced  to  do  so,  much  to  mv  lasting 
regret." 

"How?  Why?"  I  asked,  with  all  the  force  of 
a  very  rapidly  increasing  curiosity. 
149 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Because  its  effect  upon  them  has  been  so  disas 
trous.  They  were  women  of  intelligence  previous 
to  this,  one  of  them  quite  markedly  so,  but  from 
that  day  they  have  given  evidence  of  mental  weak 
ness  which  can  only  be  attributed  to  their  con 
tinual  brooding  over  this  mysterious  topic.  The 
house,  whose  peculiarities  we  are  now  discussing, 
was  once  their  family  homestead,  and  they  shrink 
from  the  reproach  of  its  unfortunate  reputation. 
What !  you  don't  think  so  ?"  he  impetuously  asked, 
moved,  perhaps,  by  my  suggestive  silence.  "You 
are  suspicious  of  these  two  poor  old  women?  What 
reason  have  you  for  that,  Miss  Saunders?  What 
motive  could  they  have  for  depreciating  the  value 
of  what  was  once  their  own  property?" 

So  he  knew  nothing  of  the  lost  bonds!  Mrs. 
Packard  had  made  no  mistake  when  she  assured  me 
of  the  secrecy  with  which  they  had  endured  their 
misfortune.  It  gave  me  great  relief ;  I  could  work 
more  safely  with  this  secret  unshared.  But  the 
situation  called  for  dissimulation.  It  was  with 
anything  but  real  openness  that  I  declared: 

150 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

"You  can  not  calculate  the  impulses  of  an  af 
fected  mind.  Jealousy  of  the  past  may  influence 
these  unfortunate  women.  They  possibly  hate  to 
see  strangers  in  the  rooms  made  sacred  by  old 
associations." 

"That  is  possible,  but  how  could  they,  shut  up 
in  a  house,  separated  from  yours  by  a  distance  of 
several  feet,  be  held  accountable  for  the  phenomena 
observed  in  393  ?  There  are  no  means  of  communi 
cation  between  the  two  buildings ;  even  the  doors, 
which  once  faced  each  other  across  the  dividing 
alley,  have  been  closed  up.  Interference  from  them 
is  impossible." 

"No  more  impossible  than  from  any  other  out 
side  source.  Is  it  a  fact  that  the  doors  and  win 
dows  of  this  strangely  haunted  house  were  always 
found  securely  locked  after  each  occurrence  of  the 
phenomena  you  have  mentioned?" 

"So  I  have  been  told  by  every  tenant  I  have 
questioned,  and  I  was  careful  to  question  them,  I 
assure  you." 

"That  settles  the  matter  in  my  mind,"  I  as- 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

sertecl.  "These  women  know  of  some  means  of 
entrance  that  has  escaped  general  discovery. 
Cunning  is  a  common  attribute  of  the  unsettled 
brain." 

"And  they  are  very  cunning.  Miss  Saunders, 
you  have  put  a  totally  new  idea  into  my  head.  I 
do  not  place  much  stress  upon  the  motive  you 
have  attributed  to  them,  nor  do  I  see  how  the 
appearances  noted  could  have  been  produced  by 
these  two  antiquated  women ;  but  the  interest  they 
have  'displayed  in  the  effect  these  have  had  upon 
others  has  been  of  the  most  decided  nature.  They 
have  called  here  after  the  departure  of  every  fresh 
tenant,  and  it  was  all  that  I  could  do  to  answer 
their  persistent  inquiries.  It  is  to  them  and  not 
to  Mr.  Searles  I  feel  bound  to  report  the  appari 
tion  seen  by  Mrs.  Packard." 

"To  them!"  I  ejaculated  in  amazement.  "Why 
to  them?  They  no  longer  have  a  proprietary 
interest  in  the  house." 

"Very  true,  but  they  long  ago  exacted  a  prom 
ise  from  me  to  keep  a  strict  account  of  such  com- 
152 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

plaints  as  were  raised  against  the  house.  They,  in 
short,  paid  me  to  do  so.  From  time  to  time  they 
have  come  here  to  read  this  account.  It  annoys 
Mr.  Searles,  but  I  have  had  considerable  patience 
with  them  for  reasons  which  your  kind  heart  will 
instantly  suggest." 

I  thought  of  the  real  pathos  of  the  situation, 
and  how  much  I  might  increase  his  interest  by; 
giving  him  the  full  details  of  their  pitiful  history, 
and  the  maddening  hopes  it  engendered  of  a  pos 
sible  discovery  of  the  treasure  they  still  believed 
to  be  hidden  in  the  house.  What  I  said,  however, 
was  this: 

"You  have  kept  an  account,  you  say,  of  the 
varied  phenomena  seen  in  this  house?  You  have 
that  account  now?" 

"Yes,  Miss  Saunders." 

"Let  us  look  it  over  together.  Let  us  see  if  it 
does  not  give  us  some  clue  to  the  mysteiry  puzzling 
us." 

He  eyed  me  doubtfully,  or  as  much  so  as  his 
great  nature  would  allow.  Meantime,  I  gaged  my 
153 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

man.  Was  he  to  be  thoroughly  and  unequivocally 
trusted?  His  very  hesitation  in  face  of  his  un 
doubted  sympathy  with  me  seemed  to  insure  that 
he  was.  At  all  events,  the  occasion  warranted  some 
risk  on  my  part.  At  least  I  persuaded  myself  that 
it  did ;  so  without  waiting  for  his  reply,  I  earnestly 
remarked : 

"The  matter  is  more  serious  than  you  suppose. 
If  the  mayor  were  not  unavoidably  called  away  by 
his  political  obligations,  he  would  add  his  en 
treaties  to  mine  for  a  complete  sifting  of  this 
whole  affair.  The  Misses  Quinlan  may  very  well 
be  innocent  of  inciting  these  manifestations;  if  so, 
we  can  do  them  no  harm  by  a  little  confidential 
consideration  of  the  affair  from  the  standpoint  I 
have  given  you.  If  they  are  not,  then  Mr.  Searles 
and  Mayor  Packard  should  know  it." 

It  appeared  to  convince  him.  His  homely  face 
shone  with  the  fire  of  sudden  interest  and  resolve, 
and,  reaching  for  a  small  drawer  at  the  right  of 
his  desk,  he  opened  it  and  drew  forth  a  folded 
paper  which  he  proceeded  to  open  before  me  with 

the  remark: 

154 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

"Here  is  a  report  that  I  have  kept  for  my  own 
satisfaction.  I  do  not  feel  that  in  showing  it  to 
you  I  am  violating  any  trust  reposed  in  me  by  the 
Misses  Quinlan.  I  never  promised  secrecy  in  the 
matter." 

I  glanced  at  the  paper,  all  eagerness.  He  smiled 
and  pushed  it  toward  me.  This  is  what  I  read: 

First  tenant,  Mr.  Hugh  Dennison  and  family. 

Night  1:  Heard  and  saw  nothing. 

Night  2:  The  entire  household  wakened  by  a  scream 
seemingly  coming  from  below.  This  was  twice  repeated 
before  Mr  Dennison  could  reach  the  hall;  the  last  time 
in  far  distant  and  smothered  tones.  Investigation  re 
vealed  nothing.  No  person  and  no  trace  of  any  persons, 
save  themselves,  could  be  found  anywhere  in  the  house. 
Uncomfortable  feelings,  but  no  alarm  as  yet. 

Night  3:  No  screams,  but  a  sound  of  groaning  in  the 
library.  The  tall  clock  standing  near  the  drawing-room 
door  stopped  at  twelve,  and  a  door  was  found  open  which 
Mr.  Dennison  is  sure  he  shut  tight  on  retiring.  A 
second  unavailing  search.  One  servant  left  the  next 
morning. 

Night  4:  Footfalls  on  the  stairs.  The  library  door, 
locked  by  Mr.  Dennison's  own  hand,  is  heard  to  unclose. 
The  timepiece  on  the  library  mantel-shelf  strikes  twelve; 
but  it  is  slightly  fast,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dennison,  who 
have  crept  from  their  room  to  the  stair-head,  listen 
breathlessly  for  the  deep  boom  of  the  great  hall  clock — 

155 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

the  one  which  had  stopped  the  night  before.  No  light 
is  burning  anywhere,  and  the  hall  below  is  a  pit  of 
darkness,  when  suddenly  Mrs.  Dennison  seizes  her  hus 
band's  arm  and,  gasping  out,  "The  clock,  the  clock!" 
falls  fainting  to  the  floor.  He  bends  to  look  and  faintly, 
in  the  heart  of  the  shadows,  he  catches  in  dim  outline 
the  face  of  the  clock,  and  reaching  up  to  it  a  spectral 
hand.  Nothing  else — and  in  another  moment  that,  too, 
disappears;  but  the  silence  is  something  awful — the 
great  clock  has  stopped.  With  a  shout  he  stumbles  down 
ward,  lights  up  the  hall,  lights  up  the  rooms,  but  finds 
nothing,  and  no  one.  Next  morning  the  second  servant 
leaves,  but  her  place'  is  soon  supplied  by  an  applicant 
we  will  call  Bess. 

Night  5:  Mrs.  Dennison  sleeps  at  a  hotel  with  the 
children.  Mr.  Dennison,  revolver  in  hand,  keeps  watch 
on  the  haunted  stairway.  He  has  fastened  up  every 
door  and  shutter  with  his  own  hand,  and  with  equal 
care  extinguished  all  lights.  As  the  hour  of  twelve  ap 
proaches,  he  listens  breathlessly.  There  is  certainly  a 
stir  somewhere,  but  he  can  not  locate  it,  nor  quite  satisfy 
himself  whether  it  is  a  footfall  or  a  rustle  that  he  hears. 
The  clock  in  the  library  strikes  twelve,  then  the  one 
in  the  hall  gives  one  great  boom,  and  stops.  Instantly 
he  raises  his  revolver  and  shoots  directly  at  its  face. 
No  sound  from  human  lips  answers  the  discharge  of  the 
weapon.  In  the  flash  which  for  a  moment  has  lighted 
up  the  whole  place,  he  catches  one  glimpse  of  the  broken 
dial  with  its  two  hands  pointing  directly  at  twelve,  but 
nothing  more.  Then  all  is  dark  again,  and  he  goes 
slowly  back  to  his  own  room. 

The  next  day  he  threw  up  his  lease. 
Second  tenant:   Mrs.  Crispin. 

156 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

Stayed  but  one  night.  Would  never  tell  us  what  she 
saw. 

Third  tenant:  Mrs.  Southwick.  Hires  Bess  for  maid- 
of-all-work,  the  only  girl  she  could  get. 

Night  1:  Unearthly  lights  shining  up  through  the 
house,  waking  the  family.  Disappeared  as  one  and  all 
came  creeping  out  into  the  hall. 

Night  2;  The  same,  followed  by  deep  groans.  Chil 
dren  waked  and  shrieked. 

Night  3:  Nothing, 

Night  4:  Lights,  groans  and  strange  shadows  on  the 
walls  and  ceilings  of  the  various  hallways.  Family  give 
notice  the  next  day,  but  do  not  leave  for  a  week,  owing 
to  sickness.  No  manifestations  while  doctor  and  nurses 
are  in  the  house. 

House  stands  vacant  for  three  months.  Bess  offers 
to  remain  in  it  as  caretaker,  but  her  offer  is  refused. 

Police  investigate. 

An  amusing  farce. 

One  of  them  saw  something  and  could  not  be  laughed 
out  of  it  by  his  fellows.  But  the  general  report  was 
unsatisfactory.  The  mistake  was  the  employment  of 
Irishmen  in  a  task  involving  superstition. 

Fourth  tenant:  Mr.  Weston  and  family. 

Remain  three  weeks.  Leaves  suddenly  because  the 
nurse  encountered  something  moving  about  in  the  lower 
hall  one  night  when  she  went  down  to  the  kitchen  to 
procure  hot  water  for  a  sick  child.  Bess  again  offered 
her  services,  but  the  family  would  not  stay  under  any 
circumstances. 

Another  long  period  without  tenant. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Mr.  Searles  tries  a  night  in  the  empty  house.  Sits 
and  dozes  in  library  till  two.  Wakes  suddenly.  Door 
he  has  tightly  shut  is  standing  open.  He  feels  the 
draft.  Turns  on  light  from  dark  lantern.  Something  is 
there — a  shape — he  can  not  otherwise  describe  it.  As 
he  stares  at  It,  It  vanishes  through  doorway.  He  rushes 
for  it;  finds  nothing.  The  hall  is  empty;  so  is  the  whole 
house. 

This  finished  the  report. 

"So  Mr.  Searles  has  had  his  'own  experiences  of 
these  mysteries!"  I  exclaimed. 

"As  you  see.  Perhaps  that  is  why  he  is  so 
touchy  on  the  subject." 

"Did  he  ever  give  you  any  fuller  account  of  his 
experience  than  is  detailed  here?" 

"No;  he  won't  talk  about  it." 

"He  tried  to  let  the  house,  however." 

"Yes,  but  he  did  not  succeed  for  a  long  time. 
Finally  the  mayor  took  it." 

Refolding  the  paper,  I  handed  it  back  to  Mr. 
Robinson.  I  had  its  contents  well  in  mind. 

"There  is  one  fact  to  which  I  should  like  to  call 
your  attention,"  said  I.  "The  manifestations,  as 
here  recorded,  have  all  taken  place  in  the  lower 

158 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

part  of  the  house.  I  should  have  had  more  faith 
in  them,  if  they  had  occurred  above  stairs.  There 
are  no  outlets  through  the  roof." 

"Nor  any  visible  ones  below.  At  least  no  vis 
ible  one  was  ever  found  open." 

"What  about  the  woman,  Bess?"  I  asked.  "How 
do  you  account  for  her  persistency  in  clinging  to 
a  place  her  employers  invariably  fled  from?  She 
seems  to  have  been  always  on  hand  with  an  offer 
of  her  services." 

"Bess  is  not  a  young  woman,  but  she  is  a  worker 
of  uncommon  ability,  very  rigid  and  very  stoical. 
She  herself  accounts  for  her  willingness  to  work  in 
this  house  by  her  utter  disbelief  in  spirits,  and  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  one  place  in  the  world  which 
connects  her  with  her  wandering  and  worthless  hus 
band.  Their  final  parting  occurred  during  Mr. 
Dennison's  tenancy,  and  as  she  had  given  the  wan 
derer  the  Franklin  Street  address,  you  could  not 
reason  her  out  of  the  belief  that  on  his  return  he 
would  expect  to  find  here  there.  That  is  what  she 
explained  to  Mr.  Searles." 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"You  interest  me,  Mr.  Robinson.  Is  she  a  plain 
woman?  Such  a  one  as  a  man  would  not  be  likely 
to  return  to?" 

"No,  she  is  a  very  good-looking  woman,  refined 
and  full  of  character,  but  odd,  very  odd, — in  fact, 
baffling." 

"How  baffling?" 

"I  never  knew  her  to  look  any  one  directly  in  the 
eye.  Her  manner  is  abstracted  and  inspires  dis 
trust.  There  is  also  a  marked  incongruity  be 
tween  her  employment  and  her  general  appearance. 
She  looks  out  of  place  in  her  working  apron,  yet 
she  is  not  what  you  would  call  a  lady.*' 

"Did  her  husband  come  back?" 

"No,  not  to  my  knowledge." 

"And  where  is  she  now?" 

"Very  near  you,  Miss  Saunders,  when  you  are  at 
your  home  in  Franklin  Street.  Not  being  able  to 
obtain  a  situation  in  the  house  itself,  she  has  rented 
the  little  shop  opposite,  where  you  can  find  her  any 
(day  selling  needles  and  thread." 

"I  have  noticed  that  shop,"  I    admitted,    not 
1 60 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

knowing  whether  to  give  more  or  less  weight  to 
my  suspicions  in  thus  finding  the  mayor's  house 
under  the  continued  gaze  of  another  watchful  eye. 

"You  will  find  two  women  there,"  the  amiable 
Mr.  Robinson  hastened  to  explain.  "The  one  with 
a  dark  red  spot  just  under  her  hair  is  Bess.  But 
perhaps  she  doesn't  interest  you.  She  always  has 
me.  If  it  had  not  been  for  one  fact,  I  should  have 
suspected  her  of  having  been  in  some  way  con 
nected  with  the  strange  doings  we  have  just  been 
considering.  She  was  not  a  member  of  the  house 
hold  during  the  occupancy  of  Mrs.  Crispin  and 
the  Westons,  yet  these  unusual  manifestations  went 
on  just  the  same." 

"Yes,  I  noted  that." 

"So  her  connivance  is  eliminated." 

"Undoubtedly.  I  am  still  disposed  to  credit  the 
Misses  Quinlan  with  the  whole  ridiculous  business. 
They  could  not  bear  to  see  strangers  in  the  house 
they  had  once  called  their  own,  and  took  the  only 
means  suggested  to  their  crazy  old  minds  to  rid 
the  place  of  them." 

161 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Mr.  Robinson  shook  his  head,  evidently  uncon 
vinced.  The  temptation  was  great  to  strengthen 
my  side  of  the  argument  by  a  revelation  of  their 
real  motive. 

Once  acquainted  with  the  story  of  the  missing 
bonds  he  could  not  fail  to  see  the  extreme  probabil 
ity  that  the  two  sisters,  afflicted  as  they  were 
with  dementia,  should  wish  to  protect  the  wealth 
which  was  once  so  near  their  grasp,  from  the  pos 
sibility  of  discovery  by  a  stranger.  But  I  dared 
not  take  him  quite  yet  into  my  full  confidence.  In 
deed,  the  situation  did  not  demand  it.  I  had 
learned  from  him  what  I  was  most  anxious  to 
know,  and  was  now  in  a  position  to  forward  my 
own  projects  without  further  aid  from  him.  Al 
most  as  if  he  had  read  my  thoughts,  Mr.  Robinson 
now  hastened  to  remark : 

"I  find  it  difficult  to  credit  these  poor  old  souls 
witE  any  such  elaborate  plan  to  empty  the  house, 
even  had  they  possessed  the  most  direct  means  of 
doing  so,  for  no  better  reason  than  this  one  you 
state.  Had  money  been  somehow  involved,  or  had 
162 


A  GLIMMER  OF  THE  TRUTH 

they  even  thought  so,  it  would  be  different.  They 
are  a  little  touched  in  the  head  on  the  subject  of 
money;  which  isn't  very  strange  considering  their 
present  straits.  They  even  show  an  interest  in 
other  people's  money.  They  have  asked  me  more 
than  once  if  any  of  their  former  neighbors  have 
seemed  to  grow  more  prosperous  since  leaving 
Franklin  Street." 

"I  see;  touched,  touched!"  I  laughed,  rising  in 
my  anxiety  to  hide  any  show  of  feeling  at  the  di 
rectness  of  this  purely  accidental  attack.  But  the 
item  struck  me  as  an  important  one. 

Mr.  Robinson  gave  me  a  keen  look  as  I  uttered 
the  usual  commonplaces  and  prepared  to  take  my 
leave. 

"May  I  ask  your  intentions  in  this  matter?" 
said  he. 

"I  wish  I  knew  them  myself,"  was  my  perfectly 
candid  answer.  "It  strikes  me  now  that  my  first 
step  should  be  to  ascertain  whether  there  exists  any 
secret  connection  between  the  two  houses  which 
would  enable  the  Misses  Quinlan  or  their  emis- 
163 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

saries  to  gain  access  to  their  old  home,  without 
ready  detection.  I  know  of  none,  and — " 

"There  is  none,"  broke  in  its  now  emphatic 
agent.  "A  half-dozen  tenants,  to  say  notliing  of 
Mr.  Searles  himself,  have  looked  it  carefully  over. 
All  the  walls  are  intact;  there  is  absolutely  no 
opening  anywhere  for  surreptitious  access." 

"Possibly  not.  You  certainly  discourage  me 
very  much.  I  had  hoped  much  from  my  theory. 
But  we  are  not  done  with  the  matter.  Mrs.  Pack 
ard's  mind  must  be  cleared  of  its  fancies,  if  it  is 
in  my  power  to  do  it.  You  will  hear  from  me 
again,  Mr.  Robinson.  Meanwhile,  I  may  be  sure 
of  your  good  will  ?" 

"Certainly,  certainly,  and  of  my  cooperation 
also,  if  you  want  it." 

"Thank  you,"  said  I,  and  left  the  office. 

His  last  look  was  one  of  interest  not  untinged 
by  compassion. 


.164 


CHAPTER  XI 


BESS 


On  my  way  back  I  took  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street  from  that  I  usually  approached.  When 
I  reached  the  little  shop  I  paused.  First  glanc 
ing  at  the  various  petty  articles  exposed  in  the 
window,  I  quietly  stepped  in.  A  contracted  and 
very  low  room  met  my  eyes,  faintly  lighted  by  a 
row  of  panes  in  the  upper  half  of  the  door  and 
not  at  all  by  the  window,  which  was  hung  on  the 
inside  with  a  heavy  curtain.  Against  two  sides 
of  this  room  were  arranged  shelves  filled  with  boxes 
labeled  in  the  usual  way  to  indicate  their  contents. 
These  did  not  strike  me  as  being  very  varied 
or  of  a  very  high  order.  There  was  no  counter  in 
front,  only  some  tables  on  which  lay  strewn  fancy 
boxes  of  thread  and  other  useless  knick-knacks  to 
which  certain  shopkeepers  appear  to  cling  though 
they  can  seldom  find  customers  for  them.  A  wo- 

165 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

man  stood  at  one  of  these  tables  untangling  a  skein 
of  red  yarn.  Behind  her  I  saw  another  leaning 
in  an  abstracted  way  over  a  counter  which  ran 
from  wall  to  wall  across  the  extreme  end  of  the 
shop.  This  I  took  to  be  Bess.  She  had  made  no 
move  at  my  entrance  and  she  made  no  move  now. 
The  woman  with  the  skein  appeared,  on  the  con 
trary,  as  eager  to  see  as  the  other  seemed  indif 
ferent.  I  had  to  buy  something  and  I  did  so  in 
as  matter-of-fact  a  way  as  possible,  considering 
that  my  attention  was  more  given  to  the  woman 
in  the  rear  than  to  the  articles  I  was  purchasing. 

"You  have  a  very  convenient  place  here,"  I  cas 
ually  remarked,  as  I  handed  out  my  money.  With 
this  I  turned  squarely  about  and  looked  directly 
at  her  whom  I  believed  to  be  Bess. 

A  voluble  answer  from  the  woman  at  my  side, 
but  not  the  wink  of  an  eye  from  the  one  whose 
attention  I  had  endeavored  to  attract. 

"I  live  in  the  house  opposite,*'  I  carelessly  went 
on,  taking  in  every  detail  of  the  strange  being  I 
was  secretly  addressing. 

166 


BESS 

"Oh!"  she  exclaimed  in  startled  tones,  roused 
into  speech  at  last.  "You  live  opposite ;  in  Mayor 
Packard's  house?" 

I  approached  her,  smiling.  She  had  dropped 
her  hands  from  her  chin  and  seemed  very  eager 
now,  more  eager  than  the  other  woman,  to  inter 
est  me  in  what  she  had  about  her  and  so  hold  me 
to  the  shop. 

"Look  at  this,"  she  cried,  holding  up  an  article 
of  such  cheap  workmanship  that  I  wondered  so 
sensible  an  appearing  woman  would  cumber  her 
shelves  with  it.  "I  am  glad  you  live  over  there," 
for  I  had  nodded  to  her  question.  "I'm  greatly 
interested  in  that  house.  I've  worked  there  as  cook 
and  waitress  several  times." 

I  met  her  look;  it  was  sharp  and  very  intelli 
gent. 

"Then  you  know  its  reputation,"  I  laughingly 
suggested. 

She  made  a  contemptuous  gesture.  The  woman 
was  really  very  good-looking,  but  baffling  in  her 
manner,  as  Mr.  Robinson  had  said,  and  very  hard 
167 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to  classify.  "That  isn't  what  interests  me,"  she 
protested.  "I've  other  reasons.  You're  not  a  rel 
ative  of  the  family,  are  you?"  she  asked  impetu 
ously,  leaning  over  the  table  to  get  a  nearer  view 
of  my  face. 

"No,  nor  even  a  friend.  I  am  in  their  employ 
just  now  as  a  companion  to  Mrs.  Packard.  Her 
health  is  not  very  good,  and  the  mayor  is  away 
a  great  deal." 

"I  thought  you  didn't  belong  there.  I  know 
all  who  belong  there.  I've  little  else  to  do  but 
stare  across  the  street,"  she  added  apologetically 
and  with  a  deep  flush.  "Business  is  very  poor 
in  this  shop." 

I  was  standing  directly  in  front  of  her.  Turn 
ing  quickly  about,  I  looked  through  the  narrow 
panes  of  the  door,  and  found  that  my  eyes  nat 
urally  rested  on  the  stoop  of  the  opposite  'house. 
Indeed,  this  stoop  was  about  all  that  could  be  seen 
from  the  spot  where  this  woman  stood. 

"Another  eye  bent  in  constant  watchfulness 
upon  us,"  I  inwardly  commented.  "We  are  quite 

168 


BESS 

surrounded.  The  house  should  certainly  hold 
treasure  to  warrant  all  this  interest.  But  what 
could  this  one-time  domestic  know  of  the  missing 
bonds?" 

"An  old-fashioned  doorway,"  I  remarked.  "It 
is  the  only  one  of  the  kind  on  the  whole  street.  It 
makes  the  house  conspicuous,  but  in  a  way  I  like. 
I  don't  wonder  you  enjoy  looking  at  it.  To  me 
such  a  house  and  such  a  doorway  suggest  mystery 
and  a  romantic  past.  If  the  place  is  not  haunted 
— and  only  a  fool  believes  in  ghosts — something 
strange  must  have  happened  there  or  I  should  never 
have  the  nervous  feeling  I  have  in  going  about 
the  halls  and  up  and  down  the  stairways.  Did 
you  never  have  that  feeling?" 

"Never.  I'm  not  given  to  feelings.  I  live  one 
day  after  another  and  just  wait." 

Not  given  to  feelings !  With  such  eyes  in  such 
a  face !  You  should  have  looked  down  when  you 
said  that,  Bess ;  I  might  have  believed  you  then. 

"Wait?"  I  softly  repeated.     "Wait  for  what? 
For  fortune  to  enter  your  little  shop-door?" 
169 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"No,  for  my  husband  to  come  back,"  was  her 
unexpected  answer,  uttered  grimly  enough  to  have 
frightened  that  husband  away  again,  had  he  been 
fortunate  or  unfortunate  enough  to  hear  her.  "I'm 
a  married  woman,  Miss,  and  shouldn't  be  work 
ing  like  this.  And  I  won't  be  always;  my  man'll 
come  back  and  make  a  lady  of  me  again.  It's  that 
I'm  waiting  for." 

Here  a  customer  came  in.  Naturally  I  drew 
back,  for  our  faces  were  nearly  touching. 

"Don't  go,"  she  pleaded,  catching  me  by  the 
sleeve  and  turning  astonishingly  pale  for  one  ordi 
narily  so  ruddy.  "I  want  to  ask  a  favor  of  you. 
Come  into  my  little  room  behind.  You  won't  re 
gret  it."  This  last  in  an  emphatic  whisper. 

Amazed  at  the  turn  which  the  conversation  had 
taken  and  congratulating  myself  greatly  upon  my 
success  in  insuring  her  immediate  confidence,  I 
slipped  through  the  opening  she  made  for  me  be 
tween  the  tables  serving  for  a  counter  and  followed 
her  into  a  room  at  the  rear,  which  from  its  appear 
ance  answered  the  triple  purpose  of  sleeping-room, 

parlor  and  kitchen. 

170 


BESS 

"Pardon  my  impertinence,"  said  sKe,  as  she 
carefully  closed  the  door  behind  us.  "It's  not  my 
habit  to  make  friends  with  strangers,  but  I've  taken 
a  fancy  to  you  and  think  you  can  be  trusted. 
Will—"  she  hesitated,  then  burst  out,  "will  you 
do  something  for  me?" 

"If  I  can,"  I  smiled. 

"How  long  do  you  expect  to  stay  over  there?" 

"Oh,  that  I  can't  say." 

"A  month?  a  week?" 

"Probably  a  week." 

"Then  you  can  do  what  I  want.     Miss — " 

"Saunders,"  I  put  in. 

"There  is  something  in  that  house  which  be 
longs  to  me." 

I  started;  this  was  hardly  what  I  expected  her 
to  say. 

"Something  of  great  importance  to  me ;  some 
thing  which  I  must  have  and  have  very  soon.  I 
don't  want  to  go  there  for  it  myself.  I  hid  it  in  a 
very  safe  place  one  day  when  my  future  looked 
doubtful,  and  I  didn't  know  where  I  might  be  go- 
171 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ing  or  what  might  happen  to  me.  Mrs.  Packard 
would  think  it  strange  if  she  saw  where,  and  might 
make  it  very  uncomfortable  for  me.  But  you  can 
get  what  I  want  without  trouble  if  you  are  not 
afraid  of  going  about  the  house  at  night.  It's  a 
little  box  with  my  name  on  it ;  and  it  is  hidden — " 

"Where?" 

"Behind  a  brick  I  loosened  in  the  cellar  wall.  I 
can  describe  the  very  place.  Oh,  you  think  I  am 
asking  too  much  of  you — a  stranger  and  a  lady." 

"No,  I'm  willing  to  do  what  I  can  for  you.  But 
I  think  you  ought  to  tell  me  what's  in  the  box,  so 
that  I  shall  know  exactly  what  I  am  doing." 

"I  can't  tell ;  I  do  not  dare  to  tell  till  I  have  it 
again  in  my  own  hand.  Then  we  will  look  it  over 
together.  Do  you  hesitate?  You  needn't;  no 
inconvenience  will  follow  to  any  one,  if  you  are 
careful  to  rely  on  yourself  and  not  let  any  other 
person  see  or  handle  this  box." 

"How  large  is  it?"  I  asked,  quite  as  breathless 
as  herself,  as  I  realized  the  possibilities  underlying 
this  remarkable  request. 

172 


BESS 

"It  is  so  small  that  you  can  conceal  it  under  an 
apron  or  in  the  pocket  of  your  coat.  In  exchange 
for  it,  I  will  give  you  all  I  can  afford — ten  dollars." 

"No  more  than  that?"  I  asked,  testing  her. 

"No  more  at  first.  Afterward — if  it  brings  me 
what  it  ought  to,  I  will  give  you  whatever  you 
think  it  is  worth.  Does  that  satisfy  you?  Are  you 
willing  to  risk  an  encounter  with  the  ghost,  for 
just  ten  dollars  and  a  promise?" 

The  smile  with  which  she  said  this  was  inde 
scribable.  I  think  it  gave  me  a  more  thrilling 
consciousness  of  human  terror  in  face  of  the  super 
natural  than  anything  which  I  had  yet  heard  in 
this  connection.  Surely  her  motive  for  remaining 
in  the  haunted  house  had  been  extraordinarily 
strong. 

"You  are  afraid,"  she  declared.  "You  will 
shrink,  when  the  time  comes,  from  going  into  that 
cellar  at  night." 

I  shook  my  head ;  I  had  already  regained  both 
my  will-power  and  the  resolution  to  carry  out  this 
adventure  to  the  end. 

173 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"I  will  go,"  said  I. 

"And  get  me  my  box?" 

"Yes !" 

"And  bring  it  to  me  here  as  early  the  next  day 
as  you  can  leave  Mrs.  Packard?" 

"Yes." 

"Oh,  you  don't  know  what  this  means  to  me." 

I  had  a  suspicion,  but  held  my  peace  and  let  her 
rhapsodize. 

"No  one  in  all  my  life  has  ever  shown  me  so 
much  kindness!  Are  you  sure  you  won't  be 
tempted  to  tell  any  one  what  you  mean  to  do?" 

"Quite  sure." 

"And  will  go  down  into  the  cellar  and  get  this 
box  for  me,  all  by  yourself?" 

"Yes,  if  you  demand  it." 

"I  do ;  you  will  see  why  some  day." 

"Very  well,  you  can  trust  me.  Now  tell  me 
where  I  am  to  find  the  brick  you  designate." 

"It's  in  the  cellar  wall,  about  half-way  down  on 
the  right-hand  side.  You  will  see  nothing  but 
stone  for  a  foot  or  two  above  the  floor,  but  after 
174 


BESS 

that  comes  the  brick  wall.  On  one  of  these  bricks 
you  will  detect  a  cross  scratched.  That's  the  one. 
It  will  look  as  well  cemented  as  the  rest,  but  if  you 
throw  water  against  it,  you  will  find  that  in  a  little 
while  you  will  be  able  to  pry  it  out.  Take  some 
thing  to  do  this  with,  a  knife  or  a  pair  of  scissors. 
When  the  brick  falls  out,  feel  behind  with  your 
hand  and  you  will  find  the  box." 

"A  questionable  task.  What  if  I  should  be  seen 
at  it?" 

"The  ghost  will  protect  you!" 

Again  that  smile  of  mingled  sarcasm  and  in 
nuendo.  It  was  no  common  servant  girl's  smile, 
any  more  than  her  language  was  that  of  the  ig 
norant  domestic. 

"I  believe  the  ghost  fails  to  walk  since  the  pres 
ent  tenants  came  into  the  house,"  I  remarked. 

"But  its  reputation  remains;  you'll  not  be  dis 
turbed." 

"Possibly  not;  a  good  reason  why  you  might 
safely  undertake  the  business  yourself.  I  can  find 
some  way  of  letting  you  in." 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"No,  no.  I  shall  never  again  cross  that  thresh 
old!"  Her  whole  attitude  showed  revolt  and  bit 
ter  determination. 

"Yet  you  have  never  been  frightened  by  any 
thing  there?" 

"I  know;  but  I  have  suffered;  that  is,  for  one 
who  has  no  feelings.  The  box  will  have  to  remain 
in  its  place  undisturbed  if  you  won't  get  it  for 
me." 

"Positively?" 

"Yes,  Miss ;  nothing  would  induce  me  even  to 
cross  the  street.  But  I  want  the  box." 

"You  shall  have  it,"  said  I. 


176 


CHAPTER  XII 

SEARCHINGS 

I  seemed  bound  to  be  the  prey  of  a  divided 
duty.  As  I  crossed  the  street,  I  asked  myself 
which  of  the  two  experiments  I  had  in  mind  should 
occupy  my  attention  first.  Should  I  proceed  at 
once  with  that  close  study  and  detailed  examina 
tion  of  the  house,  which  I  contemplated  in  my 
eagerness  to  establish  my  theory  of  a  secret  pas 
sage  between  it  and  the  one  now  inhabited  by  the 
Misses  Ouinlan,  or  should  I  wait  to  do  this  until  I 
had  recovered  the  box,  which  might  hold  still 
greater  secrets? 

I  could  not  decide,  so  I  resolved  to  be  guided 
by  circumstances.  If  Mrs.  Packard  were  still 
out,  I  did  not  think  I  could  sit  down  till  I  had  a 
complete  plan  of  the  house  as  a  start  in  the  in 
quiry  which  interested  me  most. 

Mrs.  Packard  was  still  out, — so  much  Nixon 
177 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

deigned  to  tell  me  in  answer  to  my  question. 
Whether  the  fact  displeased  him  or  not  I  could 
not  say,  but  he  was  looking  very  sour  and  seemed 
to  resent  the  trouble  he  had  been  to  in  opening 
the  door  for  me.  Should  I  notice  this,  even  by 
an  attempt  to  conciliate  him?  I  decided  not.  A 
natural  manner  was  best;  he  was  too  keen  not 
to  notice  and  give  his  own  interpretation  to  un 
called  for  smiles  or  words  which  contrasted  too 
strongly  with  his  own  marked  reticence. 

I  therefore  said  nothing  as  he  pottered  slowly 
back  into  his  own  quarters  in  the  rear,  but  lingered 
about  down-stairs  till  I  was  quite  sure  he  was  out 
of  sight  and  hearing.  Then  I  came  back  and 
took  up  my  point  of  view  on  the  spot  where  the 
big  hall  clock  had  stood  in  the  days  of  Mr.  Den- 
nison.  Later,  I  made  a  drawing  of  this  floor  as 
it  must  have  looked  at  that  time.  You  will  find 
it  on  the  opposite  page. 

Near  the  place  where  I  stood  (marked  A  on 
the  plan),  had  occurred  most  of  the  phenomena, 
which  could  be  located  at  all.  Here  the  spectral 

178 


K/TCHEH  fTC 


O/MH6  - 
ROOM 


LIBRARY 


RECEPTION 

noon 


II 


ROOM- 


GROUND-FLOOR  PLAN  OF  THE  PACKARD  HOUSE 
179 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

hand  had  been  seen  stopping  the  clock.  Here 
the  shape  had  passed  encountered  by  Mr.  Wes- 
ton's  cook,  and  just  a  few  steps  beyond  where 
the  library  door  opened  under  the  stairs  Mr. 
Searles  had  seen  the  flitting  figure  which  had  shut 
his  mouth  on  the  subject  of  his  tenants'  universal 
folly.  From  the  front  then  toward  the  back 
these  manifestations  had  invariably  peeped  to  dis 
appear — where?  That  was  what  I  was  to  deter 
mine  ;  what  I  am  sure  Mayor  Packard  would  wish 
me  to  determine  if  he  knew  the  whole  situation 
as  I  knew  it  from  his  wife's  story  and  the  record 
I  had  just  read  at  the  agent's  office. 

Alas!  there  were  many  points  of  exit  from  this 
portion  of  the  hall.  The  drawing-room  opened 
near;  so  did  Mayor  Packard's  study;  then  there 
was  the  kitchen  with  its  various  offices,  ending  as 
I  knew  in  the  cellar  stairs.  Nearer  I  could  see 
the  door  leading  into  the  dining-room  and,  open 
ing  closer  yet,  the  short  side  hall  running  down 
to  what  had  once  been  the  shallow  vestibule  of  a 
small  side  entrance,  but  which,  as  I  had  noted 
180 


SEARCHINGS 

many  times  in  passing  to  and  from  the  dining- 
room,  was  now  used  as  a  recess  or  alcove  to  hold 
a  cabinet  of  Indian  curios.  In  which  of  these 
directions  should  I  carry  my  inquiry?  All  looked 
equally  unpromising,  unless  it  was  Mayor  Pack 
ard's  study,  and  that  no  one  with  the  exception 
of  Mr.  Steele  ever  entered  save  by  his  invitation, 
not  even  his  wife.  I  could  not  hope  to  cross  that 
threshold,  nor  did  I  greatly  desire  to  invade  the 
kitchen,  especially  while  Nixon  was  there.  Should 
I  have  to  wait  till  the  mayor's  return  for  the  co 
operation  my  task  certainly  demanded?  It  looked 
that  way.  But  before  yielding  to  the  discourage 
ment  following  this  thought,  I  glanced  about  me 
again  and  suddenly  remembered,  first  the  creaking 
board,  which  had  once  answered  to  the  so-called 
spirit's  flight,  and  secondly  the  fact  which  com 
mon  sense  should  have  suggested  before,  that  if 
my  theory  were  true  and  the  secret  presence,  whose 
coming  and  going  I  had  been  considering,  had 
fled  by  some  secret  passage  leading  to  the  neigh 
boring  house,  then  by  all  laws  of  convenience  and 
Ift 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

natural  propriety  that  passage  should  open  from 
the  side  facing  the  Quinlan  domicile,  and  not  from 
that  holding  IVLayor  Packard's  study  and  the  re 
mote  drawing-room. 

This  considerably  narrowed  my  field  of  inquiry, 
and  made  me  immediately  anxious  to  find  that 
creaking  board  which  promised  to  narrow  it  further 
yet. 

Where  should  I  seek  it?  In  these  rear  halls, 
of  course,  but  I  hated  to  be  caught  pacing  them 
at  this  hour.  Nixon's  step  had  not  roused  it  or  I 
should  have  noticed  it,  for  I  was,  in  a  way,  listening 
for  this  very  sound.  It  was  not  in  the  direct 
path  then  from  the  front  door  to  the  kitchen. 
Was  it  on  one  side  or  in  the  space  about  the  din 
ing-room  door  or  where  the  transverse  corridor  met 
the  main  hall?  All  these  floors  were  covered  in 
the  old-fashioned  way  with  carpet,  which  would 
seem  to  show  that  no  new  boards  had  been  laid 
and  that  the  creaking  one  should  still  be  here. 

I  ventured  to  go  as  far  as  the  transverse  hall, — 
I  was  at  full  liberty  to  enter  the  library.     But 
182 


SEARCHINGS 

no  result  followed  this  experiment;  my  footsteps 
had  never  fallen  more  noiselessly.  Where  could 
the  board  be?  In  aimless  uncertainty  I  stepped 
into  the  corridor  and  instantly  a  creak  woke  un 
der  my  foot.  I  had  located  the  direction  in  which 
one  of  the  so-called  phantoms  had  fled.  It  was 
down  this  transverse  hall. 

Flushed  with  apparent  success,  I  looked  up  at 
the  walls  on  either  side  of  me.  They  were  gray 
with  paint  and  presented  one  unbroken  surface 
from  base-board  to  ceiling,  save  where  the  two 
doorways  opened,  one  into  the  library,  the  other 
into  the  dining-room.  Had  the  flying  presence 
escaped  by  either  of  these  two  rooms?  I  knew 
the  dining-room  well.  I  had  had  several  oppor 
tunities  for  studying  its  details.  I  thought  I 
knew  the  library;  besides,  Mr.  Searles  had  been 
in  the  library  when  the  shape  advanced  upon  him 
from  the  hall* — a  fact  eliminating  that  room  as 
a  possible  source  of  approach!  What  then  was 
left?  The  recess  which  had  once  served  as  an 
old-time  entrance.  Ah,  that  gave  promise  of  some- 
183 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

thing.  It  projected  directly  toward  where  the 
adjacent  walls  had  once  held  two  doors,  between 
which  any  sort  of  mischief  might  take  place.  Say 
that  the  Misses  Quinlan  had  retained  certain  keys. 
What  easier  than  for  one  of  them  to  enter  the 
outer  door,  strike  a  light,  open  the  inner  one  and 
flash  this  light  up  through  the  house  till  steps  or 
voices  warned  her  of  an  aroused  family,  when  she 
had  only  to  reclose  the  inside  door,  put  out  the 
light  and  escape  by  the  outer  one. 

But  alas!  at  this  point  I  remembered  that  this, 
as  well  as  all  other  outside  doors,  had  invariably 
been  protected  by  bolt,  and  that  these  bolts  had 
never  been  found  disturbed.  Veritably  I  was  busy 
ing  myself  for  nothing  over  this  old  vestibule. 
Yet  before  I  left  it  I  gave  it  another  glance;  sat 
isfied  myself  that  its  walls  were  solid;  in  fact, 
built  of  brick  like  the  house.  This  on  two  sides; 
the  door  occupied  the  third  and  showed  the  same 
unbroken  coat  of  thick,  old  paint,  its  surface  bare 
ly  hidden  by  the  cabinet  placed  at  right  angles 
to  it.  Enough  of  it,  however,  remained  exposed 
184 


SEARCHINGS 

to  view  to  give  me  an  opportunity  of  admiring 
its  sturdy  panels  and  its  old-fashioned  lock.  The 
door  was  further  secured  by  heavy  pivoted  bars 
extending  from  jamb  to  jamb.  An  egg-and-dart 
molding  extended  all  around  the  casing,  where 
the  inner  door  had  once  hung.  All  solid,  all 
very  old-fashioned,  but  totally  unsuggestive  of  any 
reasonable  solution  of  the  mystery  I  had  vaguely 
hoped  it  to  explain.  Was  I  mistaken  in  my  the 
ory,  and  must  I  look  elsewhere  for  what  I  still 
honestly  expected  to  find?  Undoubtedly ;  and  with 
this  decision  I  turned  to  leave  the  recess,  when 
a  sensation,  of  too  peculiar  a  nature  for  me  read 
ily  to  understand  it,  caused  me  to  stop  short,  and 
look  down  at  my  feet  in  an  inquiring  way  and 
afterward  to  lift  the  rug  on  which  I  had  been 
standing  and  take  a  look  at  the  floor  underneath. 
It  was  covered  with  carpet,  like  the  rest  of  the 
hall,  but  this  did  not  disguise  the  fact  that  it 
sloped  a  trifle  toward  the  outside  wall.  Had  not 
the  idea  been  preposterous,  I  should  have  said 
that  the  weight  of  the  cabinet  had  been  too  much 
185 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

for  it,  causing  it  to  sag  quite  perceptibly  at  the 
base-board.  But  this  seemed  too  improbable  to 
consider.  Old  as  the  house  was,  it  was  not  old 
enough  for  its  beams  to  have  rolled.  Yet  the 
floor  was  certainly  uneven,  and,  what  was  stranger 
yet,  had,  in  sagging,  failed  to  carry  the  base-board 
with  it.  This  I  could  see  by  peering  around  the 
side  of  the  cabinet.  Was  it  an  important  enough 
fact  to  call  for  explanation?  Possibly  not;  yet 
when  I  had  taken  a  short  leap  up  and  come  down 
on  what  was  certainly  an  unstable  floor,  I  decided 
that  I  should  never  be  satisfied  till  I  had  seen 
that  cabinet  removed  and  the  floor  under  it  rig 
idly  examined. 

Yet  when  I  came  to  take  a  look  at  this  projec 
tion  from  the  library  window  and  saw  that  this 
floor,  like  that  of  the  many  entrances,  was  only 
the  height  of  one  step  from  the  ground,  I  felt  the 
folly  into  which  my  inquiring  spirit  had  led  me, 
and  would  have  dismissed  the  whole  subject  from 
my  mind  if  my  eyes  had  not  detected  at  that  mo 
ment  on  one  of  the  tables  an  unusually  thin  paper- 
186 


SEARCHINGS 

knife.  This  gave  me  an  idea.  Carrying  it  back 
with  me  into  the  recess,  I  got  down  on  my  knees, 
and  first  taking  the  precaution  to  toss  a  little 
stick-pin  of  mine  under  the  cabinet  to  be  reached 
after  in  case  I  was  detected  there  by  Nixon,  I 
insinuated  the  cutter  between  the  base-board  and 
the  floor  and  found  that  I  could  not  only  push 
it  in  an  inch  or  more  before  striking  the  brick, 
but  run  it  quite  freely  around  from  one  corner 
of  the  recess  to  the  other.  This  was  surely  sur 
prising.  The  exterior  of  this  vestibule  must  be 
considerably  larger  than  the  interior  would  denote. 
What  occupied  the  space  between?  I  went  up 
stairs  full  of  thought.  Sometime,  and  that  be 
fore  long,  I  would  have  that  cabinet  removed. 


.is/ 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A  DISCOVERY 

Mrs.  Packard  came  in  very  soon  after  this. 
She  was  accompanied  by  two  friends  and  I  could 
hear  them  talking  and  laughing  in  her  room  up 
stairs  all  the  afternoon.  It  gave  me  leisure,  but 
leisure  was  not  what  I  stood  in  need  of,  just  now. 
I  desired  much  more  an  opportunity  to  pursue 
my  inquiries,  for  I  knew  why  she  had  brought 
these  friends  home  with  her  and  lent  herself  to  a 
merriment  that  was  not  natural  to  her.  She  wish 
ed  to  forestall  thought;  to  keep  down  dread;  to 
fill  the  house  so  full  of  cheer  that  no  whisper 
should  reach  her  from  that  spirit-world  she  had 
come  to  fear.  She  had  seen — or  believed  that  she 
had  seen — a  specter,  and  she  had  certainly  heard 
a  laugh  that  had  come  from  no  explicable  human 
source. 

The  brightness  of  the  sunshiny  day  aided  her 
1 88 


A  DISCOVERY 

-    .    - 


:: 


f«Bi*fc*i  it 

-£  .:  - 


.     At 


i:    :: 


v-  >r_Ij.  . 

u 

_  7  : :  z. •  7 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  stole  down  to  ask  her  if  I  could  suggest  it  to 
him.  But  I  was  too  late.  Just  as  I  reached  the 
head  of  the  stairs  on  the  second  floor  he  came  out 
of  the  study  below  and  passed,  hat  in  hand,  to 
ward  the  front  door. 

"What  a  handsome  man !"  came  in  an  audible 
whisper  from  one  of  the  ladies,  who  now  stood  in 
the  lower  hall. 

"Who  is  he?"  asked  the  other. 
I  thought  he  held   the   door   open   one  minute 
longer  than  was  necessary  to  catch  her  reply.     It 
was  a  very  cold  and  unenthusiastic  one. 

"That  is  Mr.  Packard's  secretary,"  said  she. 
"He  will  join  the  mayor  just  as  soon  as  he  has 
finished  certain  preparations  intrusted  to  him." 

"Oh!"  was  their  quiet  rejoinder,  but  a  note 
of  disappointment  rang  in  both  voices  as  the  door 
shut  behind  him. 

"One  does  not  often  see  a  perfectly  handsome 
man." 

I  stepped  down  to  meet  her  when  she  in  turn 
had  shut  the  door  upon  them. 
190 


A  DISCOVERY 

But  I  stopped  half-way.  She  was  standing 
with  her  head  turned  away  from  me  and  the  knob 
still  in  her  hand.  I  saw  that  she  was  thinking 
or  was  the  prey  of  some  rapidly  growing  resolve. 

Suddenly  she  seized  the  key  and  turned  it. 

"The  house  is  closed  for  the  night,"  she  an 
nounced  as  she  looked  up  and  met  my  astonished 
gaze.  "No  one  goes  out  or  comes  in  here  again 
till  morning.  I  have  seen  all  the  visitors  I  have 
strength  for."  And  though  she  did  not  know  I 
saw  it,  she  withdrew  the  key  and  slipped  it  into 
her  pocket.  "This  is  Nixon's  night  out,"  she  mur 
mured,  as  she  led  the  way  to  the  library.  "Ellen 
will  wait  on  us  and  we'll  have  the  baby  down  and 
play  games  and  be  as  merry  as  ever  we  can  be, — • 
to  keep  the  ghosts  away,"  she  cried  in  fresh,  de 
fiant  tones  that  had  just  the  faintest  suggestion 
of  hysteria  in  them.  "We  shall  succeed;  I  don't 
mean  to  think  of  it  again.  I'm  right  in  that, 
am  I  not?  You  look  as  if  you  thought  so.  Ah, 
Mr.  Packard  was  kind  to  secure  me  such  a 
companion.  I  must  prove  my  gratitude  to  him 
191 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

by  keeping  you  close  to  me.  It  was  a  mistake  to 
have  those  light-headed  women  visit  me  to-day. 
They  tired  more  than  they  comforted  me." 

I  smiled,  and  put  the  question  which  concerned 
me  most  nearly. 

"Does  Nixon  stay  late  when  he  goes  out?" 

She  threw  herself  into  a  chair  and  took  up  her 
embroidery. 

"He  will  to-night,"  was  her  answer.  "A  little 
grandniece  of  his  is  coming  on  a  late  train  from 
Pittsburgh.  I  don't  think  the  train  is  due  till 
midnight,  and  after  that  he's  got  to  take  her  to 
his  daughter's  on  Carey  Street.  It  will  be  one 
o'clock  at  least  before  he  can  be  baclc." 

I  hid  my  satisfaction.  Fate  was  truly  auspi 
cious.  I  would  make  good  use  of  his  absence. 
There  was  nobody  else  in  the  house  whose  surveil 
lance  I  feared. 

"Pray  send  for  the  baby  now,"  I  exclaimed. 
"I  am  eager  to  begin  our  merry  evening." 

She  smiled  and  rang  the  bell  for  Letty,  the 
nurse, 

192 


A  DISCOVERY 

Late  that  night  I  left  my  room  and  stole  softly 
down-stairs.  Mrs.  Packard  had  ordered  a  bed 
made  up  for  herself  in  the  nursery  and  had  re 
tired  early.  So  had  Ellen  and  Letty.  The  house 
was  therefore  clear  below  stairs,  and  after  I  had 
passed  the  second  story  I  felt  myself  removed 
from  all  human  presence  as  though  I  were  all 
alone  in  the  house. 

This  was  a  relief  to  me,  yet  the  experience  was 
not  a  happy  one.  Ellen  had  asked  permission 
to  leave  the  light  burning  in  the  hall  during  the 
mayor's  absence,  so  the  way  was  plain  enough 
before  me;  but  no  parlor  floor  looks  inviting  af 
ter  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  and  this  one  held  a 
secret  as  yet  unsolved,  which  did  not  add  to  its 
comfort  or  take  the  mysterious  threat  from  the 
shadows  lurking  in  corners  and  under  stairways 
which  I  had  to  pass.  As  I  hurried  past  the  place 
where  the  clock  had  once  stood,  I  thought  of  the 
nurses'  story  and  of  the  many  frightened  hearts 
which  had  throbbed  on  the  stairway  I  had  just 
left  and  between  the  walls  I  was  fast  approaching ; 
193 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

but  I  did  not  turn  back.  That  would  have  been  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  truth  of  what  I  was  at 
this  very  time  exerting  my  full  faculties  to  dis 
prove. 

I  knew  little  about  the  rear  of  the  house  and 
nothing  about  the  cellar.  But  when  I  had  found 
my  way  into  the  kitchen  and  lit  the  candle  I  had 
brought  from  my  room,  I  had  no  difficulty  in 
deciding  which  of  the  many  doors  led  below.  There 
is  something  about  a  cellar  door  which  is  unmis 
takable,  but  it  took  me  a  minute  to  summon  up 
courage  to  open  it  after  I  had  laid  my  hand  on 
its  old-fashioned  latch.  Why  do  we  so  hate  dark 
ness  and  the  chill  of  unknown  regions,  even  when 
we  know  they  are  empty  of  all  that  can  hurt  or 
really  frighten  us?  I  was  as  safe  there  as  in 
my  bed  up-stairs,  yet  I  had  to  force  my 
self  to  consider  more  than  once  the  importance 
of  my  errand  and  the  positive  result  it  might  have 
in  allaying  the  disturbance  in  more  than  one  mind, 
before  I  could  lift  that  latch  and  set  my  foot 
on  the  short  flight  which  led  into  the  yawning 
blackness  beneath  me. 

194 


A  DISCOVERY 

But  once  on  my  way  I  took  courage.  I  pic 
tured  to  myself  the  collection  of  useful  articles 
with  which  the  spaces  before  me  were  naturally 
filled,  and  thought  how  harmless  were  the  sources 
of  the  grotesque  shadows  which  bowed  to  me  from 
every  side  and  even  from  the  cement  floor  toward 
the  one  spot  where  the  stones  of  the  foundation 
showed  themselves  clear  of  all  encumbering  ob 
jects.  As  I  saw  how  numerous  these  articles  were, 
and  how  small  a  portion  of  the  wall  itself  was 
really  visible,  I  had  my  first  practical  fear,  and 
a  practical  fear  soon  puts  imaginary  ones  to 
flight.  What  if  some  huge  box  or  case  of  bottles 
should  have  been  piled  up  in  front  of  the  marked 
brick  I  was  seeking?  I  am  strong,  but  I  could 
not  move  such  an  object  alone,  and  this  search 
was  a  solitary  one;  I  had  been  forbidden  to  seek 
help. 

The  anxiety  this  possibility  involved  nerved  me 

to  instant  action.      I  leaped  forward  to  the  one 

clear  spot  singled  out  for  me  by  chance  and  be- 

g&n  a  hurried  scrutiny  of  the  short  strip  of  wall 

195 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

which  was  all  that  was  revealed  to  me  on  the  right- 
hand  side.  Did  it  hold  the  marked  brick?  My 
little  caudle  shook  with  eagerness  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  I  could  see  the  face  of  the  brick  close 
enough  to  determine.  But  fortune  favored,  and 
presently  my  eye  fell  on  one  whose  surface  showed 
a  rudely  scratched  cross.  It  was  in  the  lowest 
row  and  well  within  reach  of  my  hand.  If  I 
could  move  it  the  box  would  soon  be  in  my  pos 
session — and  what  might  that  box  not  contain ! 

Looking  about,  I  found  the  furnace  and  soon 
the  gas-jet  which  made  attendance  upon  it  pos 
sible.  This  lit,  I  could  set  my  candle  down,  and 
yet  see  plainly  enough  to  work.  I  had  shears  in 
my  pocket.  I  have  had  a  man's  training  in  the 
handling  of  tools  and  felt  quite  confident  that  I 
could  pry  this  brick  out  if  it  was  as  easily  loosen 
ed  as  Bess  had  given  me  to  understand.  My  first 
thrust  at  the  dusty  cement  inclosing  it  encouraged 
me  greatly.  It  was  very  friable  and  so  shallow 
that  my  scissors'-point  picked  it  at  once.  In  five 
minute*'  time  the  brick  was  clear,  so  that  I  easily] 
196 


A  DISCOVERY 

lifted  it  out  and  set  it  on  the  floor.  The  small 
black  hole  which  was  left  was  large  enough  to 
admit  my  hand.  I  wasted  no  time  thrusting  it 
in,  expecting  to  feel  the  box  at  once  and  draw  it 
out.  But  it  was  farther  back  than  I  expected, 
and  while  I  was  feeling  about  something  gave  way 
and  fell  with  a  slight,  rustling  noise  down  out 
of  my  reach.  Was  it  the  box?  No,  for  in  an 
other  instant  I  had  come  in  contact  with  its  broken 
edges  and  had  drawn  it  out;  the  falling  object 
must  have  been  some  extra  mortar,  and  it  had  gone 
where?  I  did  not  stop  to  consider  then.  The 
object  in  my  hand  was  too  alluring;  the  size,  the 
shape  too  suggestive  of  a  package  of  folded  bonds 
for  me  to  think  of  anything  but  the  satisfaction 
of  my  curiosity  and  the  consequent  clearing  of 
a  very  serious  mystery. 

Just  at  this  moment,  one  of  intense  excite 
ment,  I  heard,  or  thought  I  heard,  a  stealthy  step 
behind  me.  Forcing  myself  to  calmness,  however, 
I  turned  and,  holding  the  candle  high  convinced 
myself  that  I  was  alone  in  the  cellar. 
197 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Carrying  the  box  nearer  the  light,  I  pulled  off 
its  already  loosened  string  and  lifted  the  cover. 
In  doing  this  I  suffered  from  no  qualms  of  con 
science.  My  duty  seemed  very  clear  to  me,  and 
the  end,  a  totally  impersonal  one,  more  than  jus 
tified  the  means. 

A  folded  paper  met  my  eyes — one — not  of  the 
kind  I  expected;  then  some  letters  whose  address 
I  caught  at  a  glance.  "Elizabeth  Brainard" — a 
discovery  which  might  have  stayed  my  hand  at 
another  time,  but  nothing  could  stay  it  now.  I 
opened  the  paper  and  looked  at  it.  Alas !  it  was 
only  her  marriage  certificate;  I  had  taken  all  this 
trouble  and  all  this  risk,  only  to  rescue  for  her 
the  proof  of  her  union  with  one  John  Silverthorn 
Brainard.  The  same  name  was  on  her  letters. 
Why  had  Bess  so  strongly  insisted  on  a  secret 
search,  and  why  had  she  concealed  her  license  in 
so  strange  a  place? 

Greatly  sobered,  I  restored  the  paper  to  its  place 
in  the  box,  slipped  on  the  string  and  prepared  to 
leave  the  cellar  with  it.  Then  I  remembered  the 


A  DISCOVERY 

brick  on  the  floor  and  the  open  hole  where  it  had 
been,  and  afterward  the  something  which  had 
fallen  over  within  and  what  this  space  might  mean 
in  a  seemingly  solid  wall. 

More  excited  now  even  than  I  had  been  at  any 
time  before,  I  thrust  my  hand  in  again  and  tried 
to  sound  the  depth  of  this  unexpected  far-reach 
ing  hole ;  but  the  size  of  my  arm  stood  in  the  way. 
of  my  experiment,  and,  drawing  out  my  hand,  I 
looked  about  for  a  stick  and  finding  one,  plunged 
that  in.  To  my  surprise  and  growing  satisfaction 
it  went  in  its  full  length — about  three  feet.  There 
was  a  cavity  on  the  other  side  of  this  wall  of 
very  sizable  dimensions.  Had  I  struck  the  sus 
pected  passage?  I  had  great  hope  of  it.  Noth 
ing  else  would  account  for  so  large  a  space  on 
the  other  side  of  a  wall  which  gave  every  indication 
of  being  one  with  the  foundation.  Catching  up 
my  stick  I  made  a  rude  estimate  of  its  location, 
after  which  I  replaced  the  brick,  put  out  the  gas, 
and  caught  up  Bess'  box.  Trembling,  and  more 
frightened  now  than  at  my  descent  at  my  own 
199 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

footfall  and  tremulous  pursuing  shadow,  I  went 
up-stairs. 

As  I  passed  the  corridor  leading  to  the  convert 
ed  vestibule  which  had  so  excited  my  interest  in 
the  afternoon,  I  paused  and  made  a  hurried  cal 
culation.  If  the  stick  had  been  three  feet  long, 
as  I  judged,  and  my  stride  was  thirty  inches,  then 
the  place  of  that  hole  in  the  waU  below  was  di 
rectly  in  a  line  with  where  I  now  stood, — in  other 
words,  under  the  vestibule  floor,  as  I  had  already 
suspected. 

How  was  I  to  verify  this  without  disturbing 
Mrs.  Packard?  That  was  a  question  to  sleep  on. 
But  it  took  me  a  long  time  to  get  to  sleep. 


200 


CHAPTER  XIV 

I    SEEK    HELP 

A  bad  night,  a  very  bad  night,  but  for  all  that 
I  was  down  early  the  next  morning.  Bess  must 
have  her  box  and  I  a  breath  of  fresh  air  before 
breakfast,  to  freshen  me  up  a  bit  and  clear  my 
mind  for  the  decisive  act,  since  my  broken  rest 
had  failed  to  refresh  me. 

As  I  reached  the  parlor  floor  Nixon  came  out 
of  the  reception-room. 

"Oh,  Miss!"  he  exclaimed,  "going  out?"  sur 
prised,  doubtless,  to  see  me  in  my  hat  and  jacket. 

"A  few  steps,"  I  answered,  and  then  stopped, 
not  a  little  disturbed;  for  in  moving  to  open  the 
door  he  had  discovered  that  the  key  was  not  in  it 
and  was  showing  his  amazement  somewhat  con 
spicuously. 

"Mrs.  Packard  took  the  key  up  to  her  room,5' 
I  explained,  thinking  that  some  sort  of  explana- 
201 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

tion  was  in  order.  "She  is  nervous,  you  know, 
and  probably  felt  safer  with  it  there." 

The  slow  shake  of  his  head  had  a  tinge  of  self- 
reproach  in  it. 

"I  was  sorry  to  go  out,"  he  muttered.  "I  was 
very  sorry  to  go  out," — but  the  look  which  he 
turned  upon  me  the  next  minute  was  of  a  very 
different  sort.  "I  don't  see  how  you  can  go  out 
yet,"  said  he,  "unless  you  go  by  the  back  way. 
That  leads  into  Stanton  Street;  but  perhaps  you 
had  just  as  lief  go  into  Stanton  Street." 

There  was  impertinence  in  his  voice  as  well  as 
aggressiveness  in  his  eye,  but  I  smiled  easily 
enough  and  was  turning  toward  the  back  with 
every  expectation  of  going  by  way  of  Stanton 
Street,  when  Letty  came  running  down  the  stairs 
with  the  key  in  her  hand.  I  don't  think  he  was 
pleased,  but  he  opened  the  door  civilly  enough  and 
I  gladly  went  out,  taking  with  me,  however,  a 
remembrance  of  the  furtive  look  with  which  he 
had  noted  the  small  package  in  my  hand. 

I  pass  over  the  joy  with  which  Bess  received 

202 


I  SEEK  HELP 

the  box  and  its  desired  contents.  I  had  lost  all 
interest  in  the  matter,  which  was  so  entirely  per 
sonal  to  herself,  and,  declining  the  ten  dollars 
which  I  knew  she  could  ill  afford,  made  my  visit 
so  short  that  I  was  able  to  take  a  brisk  walk  down 
the  street  and  yet  be  back  in  time  for  breakfast. 

This,  like  that  of  the  preceding  day,  I  took 
alone.  Mrs.  Packard  was  well  but  preferred  to 
eat  up-stairs.  I  did  not  fret  at  this ;  I  was  really 
glad,  for  now  I  could  think  and  plan  my  action 
quite  unembarrassed  by  her  presence. 

The  opening  under  the  vestibule  floor  was  to 
be  sounded,  and  sounded  this  very  morning,  but 
on  what  pretext?  I  could  not  take  Mrs.  Packard 
into  my  counsel,  for  that  would  be  to  lessen  the 
force  of  the  discovery  with  which  I  yet  hoped  to 
dissipate  at  one  blow  the  superstitious  fears  I  saw 
it  was  otherwise  impossible  to  combat.  I  might 
interest  Ellen,  and  I  was  quite  certain  that  I 
could  interest  the  cook ;  but  this  meant  Nixon,  also, 
who  was  always  around  and  whose  animosity  to 
myself  was  too  mysteriously  founded  for  me  to 
203 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

trust  him  with  any  of  my  secrets  or  to  afford  him 
any  inkling  of  my  real  reason  for  being  in  the 
house. 

Yet  help  I  must  have  and  very  efficient  help, 
too.  Should  I  telegraph  to  Mayor  Packard  for 
some  sort  of  order  which  would  lead  to  the  tear 
ing  up  of  this  end  of  the  house?  I  could  not  do 
this  without  fuller  explanations  than  I  could  give 
in  a  telegram.  Besides,  he  was  under  sufficient 
pressure  just  now  for  me  to  spare  him  the  con 
sideration  of  so  disturbing  a  matter,  especially  as 
he  had  left  a  substitute  behind  whose  business  it 
was,  not  only  to  relieve  Mrs.  Packard  in  regard 
to  the  libelous  paragraph,  but  in  all  other  direc 
tions  to  which  his  attention  might  be  called.  I 
would  see  Mr.  Steele;  he  would  surely  be  able  to 
think  up  some  scheme  by  which  that  aperture 
might  be  investigated  without  creating  too  much 
disturbance  in  the  house. 

An  opportunity  for  doing  this  was  not  long  in 
presenting  itself.  Mr.  Steele  came  in  about  nine 
o'clock  and  passed  at  once  into  the  study.  The 
204 


I  SEEK  HELP 

next  moment  I  was  knocking  at  his  door,  my  heart 
in  my  mouth,  but  my  determination  strung  up  to 
the  point  of  daring  anything  and  everything  for 
the  end  I  had  in  view. 

Fortunately  he  came  to  the  door;  I  could  never 
have  entered  without  his  encouragement.  As  I 
met  his  eye  I  was  ashamed  of  the  color  my  cheeks 
undoubtedly  showed,  but  felt  reconciled  the  next 
minute,  for  he  was  not  quite  disembarrassed 
himself,  though  he  betrayed  it  by  a  little  extra 
paleness  rather  than  by  a  flush,  such  as  had  so  dis 
turbed  myself.  Both  of  us  were  quite  natural 
in  a  moment,  however,  and  answering  his  courteous 
gesture  I  stepped  in  and  at  once  opened  up  my 
business. 

"You  must  pardon  me,"  said  I,  "for  this  in 
fringement  upon  the  usual  rules  of  this  office.  I 
have  something  very  serious  to  say  about  Mrs. 
Packard — oh,  she's  quite  well;  it  has  to  do  with 
a  matter  I  shall  presently  explain — and  I  wish 
to  make  a  request." 

205 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Thank  you  for  the  honor,"  he  said,  drawing 
up  a  chair  for  me. 

But  I  did  not  sit,  neither  did  I  speak  for  a 
moment.  I  was  contemplating  his  features  and 
thinking  how  faultless  they  were. 

"I  hardly  know  where  to  begin,"  I  ventured  at 
last.  "I  am  burdened  with  a  secret,  and  it  may 
all  appear  puerile  to  you.  I  don't  know  whether 
to  remind  you  first  of  Mayor  Packard's  intense 
desire  to  see  his  wife's  former  cheerfulness  re 
stored — a  task  in  which  I  have  been  engaged  to 
assist — or  to  plunge  at  once  into  my  discoveries, 
which  are  a  little  peculiar  and  possibly  important, 
in  spite  of  my  short  acquaintance  with  the  people 
under  this  roof  and  the  nature  of  my  position 
here." 

"You  excite  me,"  were  his  few  quick  but  sharp 
ly  accentuated  words.  "What  secret?  Whlat 
discoveries?  I  didn't  know  that  the  house  held 
any  that  were  worth  the  attention  of  sensible  per 
sons  like  ourselves." 

I   had   not   been   looking   at   him   directly,   but 
206 


I  SEEK  HELP 

I  looked  up  at  this  and  was  astonished  to  find  that 
his  interest  in  what  I  had  said  was  greater  than  ap 
peared  from  his  tone  or  even  from  his  manner. 

"You  know  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Packard's  pres 
ent  uneasiness?"  I  asked. 

"Mayor  Packard  told  me — the  paragraph 
which  appeared  in  yesterday  morning's  paper.  I 
have  tried  to  find  out  its  author,  but  I  have  failed 
so  far." 

"That  is  a  trifle,"  I  said.  "The  real  cause — 
no,  I  prefer  to  stand,"  I  put  in,  for  he  was  again 
urging  me  by  a  gesture  to  seat  myself. 

"The  real  cause — "  he  repeated. 

" — is  one  you  will  smile  at,  but  which  you  must 
nevertheless  respect.  She  thinks — she  has  confid 
ed  to  us,  in  fact — that  she  has  seen,  within  these 
walls,  what  many  others  profess  to  have  seen. 
You  understand  me,  Mr.  Steele?" 

"I  don't  know  that  I  do,  Miss  Saunders." 

"  I  find  it  hard  to  speak  it ;  you  have  heard,  of 
course,  the  common  gossip  about  this  house." 

"That  it  is  haunted?"  he  smiled,  somewhat  dis 
dainfully. 

20; 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Yes.  Well,  Mrs.  Packard  believes  that  she 
has  seen  what — what  gives  this  name  to  the  house." 

"A  ghost?" 

"Yes,  a  ghost — in  the  library  one  night." 

"Ah!" 

The  ejaculation  was  eloquent.  I  did  not  alto 
gether  understand  it,  but  its  chief  expression  seem 
ed  to  be  contempt.  I  began  to  fear  he  would  not 
have  sufficient  sympathy  with  such  an  unreason 
ing  state  of  mind  to  give  me  the  attention  and 
assistance  I  desired.  He  saw  the  effect  it  had  upon 
me  and  hastened  to  say: 

"The  impression  Mrs.  Packard  has  made  upon 
me  was  of  a  common-sense  woman.  I'm  sorry  to 
hear  that  she  is  the  victim  of  an  hallucination. 
What  do  you  propose  to  do  about  it? — for  I  see 
that  you  have  some  project  in  mind." 

Then  I  told  him  as  much  of  my  story  as  seemed 
necessary  to  obtain  his  advice  and  to  secure  his 
cooperation.  I  confided  to  him  my  theory  of  the 
unexplainable  sights  and  sounds  which  had  so  un 
fortunately  aroused  Mrs.  Packard's  imagination, 
208 


I  SEEK  HELP 

and  what  I  had  done  so  far  to  substantiate  it.  I 
did  not  mention  the  bonds,  nor  tell  him  of  Bess  and 
her  box,  but  led  him  to  think  that  my  experiments 
in  the  cellar  had  been  the  result  of  my  discoveries 
in  the  side  entrance. 

He  listened  gravely — I  hardly  feel  justified  in 
saying  with  a  surprise  that  was  complimentary. 
I  am  not  sure  that  it  was.  Such  men  are  diffi 
cult  to  understand.  When  I  had  finished,  he  re 
marked  with  a  smile: 

"So  you  conclude  that  the  floor  of  this  place 

is  movable  and  that  the  antiquated  ladies  you  men- 

i 

tion  have  stretched  their  old  limbs  in  a  difficult 

I 

climb,  just  for  the  game  of  frightening  out  ten 
ants  they  did  not  desire  for  neighbors?" 

"I  know  that  it  sounds  ridiculous,"  I  admitted, 
refraining  still,  in  spite  of  the  great  temptation, 
from  mentioning  the  treasure  which  it  was  the  one 
wish  of  their  lives  to  protect  from  the  discovery 
of  others.  "If  they  were  quite  sane  I  should  per 
haps  not  have  the  courage  to  suggest  this  explana 
tion  of  what  has  been  heard  and  seen  here.  But 
209 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

they  are  not  quite  sane;  a  glance  at  their  faces 
is  enough  to  convince  one  of  this,  and  from  minds 
touched  with  insanity  anything  can  be  expected. 
Will  you  go  with  me  to  this  side  entrance  and 
examine  the  floor  for  yourself?  The  condition  of 
things  under  it  I  will  ask  you  to  take  my  word 
for;  you  will  hardly  wish  to  visit  the  cellar  on  an 
exploring  expedition  till  you  are  reasonably  as 
sured  of  its  necessity." 

His  eye,  which  had  grown  curiously  cold  and 
unresponsive  through  this,  turned  from  me  to 
ward  the  desk  before  which  he  had  been  sitting. 
It  was  heaped  high  with  a  batch  of  unopened  let 
ters,  and  I  could  readily  understand  what  was 
in  his  mind. 

"You  will  be  helping  the  mayor  more  by  listen 
ing  to  me,"  I  continued  earnestly,  "than  by  any 
thing  you  can  do  here.  Believe  me,  Mr.  Steele, 
I  am  no  foolish,  unadvised  girl.  I  know  what  I 
am  talking  about." 

He  suppressed  an  impatient  sigh  and  endeav 
ored  to  show  a  proper  appreciation  of  my  own 
210 


I  SEEK  HELP 

estimate  of  myself  and  the  value  of  my  communi 
cation. 

"I  am  at  your  service,"  said  he. 

I  wished  he  had  been  a  little  more  enthusiastic, 
but,  careful  not  to  show  my  disappointment,  I 
added,  as  I  led  the  way  to  the  door: 

"I  wish  we  could  think  of  some  way  of  securing 
ourselves  from  interruption.  Nixon  does  not  like 
me,  and  will  be  sure  to  interest  himself  in  our 
movements  if  he  sees  us  go  down  that  hall  to 
gether." 

"Is  there  any  harm  in  that?" 

"There  might  be.  He  is  suspicious  of  me, 
which  makes  it  impossible  for  one  to  count  upon 
his  conduct.  If  he  saw  us  meddling  with  the 
cabinet,  he  would  be  very  apt  to  rush  with  his 
complaints  to  Mrs.  Packard,  and  I  am  not  ready 
yet  to  take  her  into  our  confidence.  I  want  first 
to  be  sure  that  my  surmises  are  correct." 

"You  are  quite  right."  If  any  sarcasm  tinged 
this  admission,  he  successfully  hid  it.  "I  think 
I  can  dispose  of  Nixon  for  a  short  time,"  he  went 

211 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

on.  "You  are  bent  upon  meddling  with  that  ves 
tibule  floor?" 

"Yes." 

"Even  if  I  should  advise  not?" 

"Yes,  Mr.  Steele ;  even  if  you  roused  the  house 
hold  and  called  Mrs.  Packard  down  to  witness 
my  folly.  But  I  should  prefer  to  make  my  ex 
periments  quickly  and  without  any  other  witness 
than  yourself.  I  am  not  without  some  pride  to 
counterbalance  my  presumption." 

We  had  come  to  a  stand  before  the  door  as  I 
said  this.  As  I  finished,  he  laid  his  hand  on  the 
knob,  saying  kindly: 

"Your  wishes  shall  be  considered.  Take  a  seat 
in  the  library,  Miss  Saunders,  and  in  a  few  mo 
ments  I  will  join  you.  I  have  a  task  for  Nixon 
which  will  keep  him  employed  for  some  time." 
At  this  he  opened  the  door  and  I  glided  out. 

Making  my  way  to  the  library  I  hastened  in 
and  threw  myself  into  one  of  its  great  chairs. 
In  another  minute  I  heard  Mr.  Steele  summon 
Nixon,  and  in  the  short  interview  which  followed 

212 


I  SEEK  HELP 

between  them  heard  enough  to  comprehend  that 
he  was  loading  the  old  butler's  arms  with  a  large 
mass  of  documents  and  papers  for  immediate  con 
sumption  in  the  furnace.  Nixon  was  not  to  leave 
till  they  were  all  safely  consumed.  The  grumble 
which  followed  from  the  old  fellow's  lips  was  not 
the  most  cheerful  sound  in  the  world,  but  he  went 
back  with  his  pile.  Presently  I  heard  the  furnace 
door  rattle  and  caught  the  smell,  which  I  was  care 
ful  to  explain  to  Ellen  as  she  went  by  the  library 
door  on  her  way  up-stairs,  lest  Mrs.  Packard 
should  be  alarmed  and  come  running  down  to  see 
what  was  the  matter. 

The  next  moment  Mr.  Steele  appeared  in  the 
doorway. 

"Now  what  are  we  to  do?"  said  he. 

I  led  the  way  to  what  I  have  sometimes  called 
"the  recess"  for  lack  of  a  better  name. 

"This  is  the  place,"  I  cried,  adding  a  few  ex 
planations  as  I  saw  the  curiosity  with  which  he 
now  surveyed  its  various  features.  "Don't  you 
see  how  that  cabinet  leans  to  the  left?  I  declare 
213 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

it  leans  more  than  it  did  yesterday ;  the  floor 
certainly  dips  at  that  point." 

He  cast  a  glance  where  I  pointed  and  instinct 
ively  put  out  his  hand,  but  let  it  fall  as  I  re 
marked  : 

"The  cabinet  is  not  so  very  heavy.  If  I  take 
out  a  few  of  those  big  pieces  of  pottery,  don't 
you  think  we  could  lift  it  away  from  this  corner?" 

"And  what  would  you  do  then?" 

"Tear  up  the  carpet  and  see  what  is  the  matter 
with  this  part  of  the  floor.  Perhaps  we  shall  find 
not  only  that,  but  something  else  of  a  still  more 
interesting  nature." 

He  was  standing  on  the  sill  of  what  had  been 
the  inner  doorway.  As  I  said  these  words  he  fell 
back  in  careless  grace  against  the  panel  and  re 
mained  leaning  there  in  an  easy  attitude,  assumed 
possibly  just  to  show  me  with  what  incredulity 
and  yet  with  what  kindly  forbearance  he  regarded 
my  childish  enthusiasm. 

"I  don't  understand,"  said  he.     "What  do  you 

expect  to  "find?" 

214 


I  SEEK  HELP 

"Some  spring  or  button  by  which  this  floor  is 
made  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a  trap.  I'm  sure 
that  there  is  an  opening  underneath — a  large  open 
ing.  Won't  you  help  me — " 

I  forgot  to  finish.  In  my  eagerness  to  impress 
him  I  had  turned  in  his  direction,  and  was  staring 
straight  at  his  easy  figure  and  faintly  smiling  fea 
tures,  when  the  molding  against  which  he  leaned 
caught  my  eye.  With  a  total  absence  of  every  oth 
er  thought  than  the  idea  which  had  suddenly  come 
to  me,  I  sprang  forward  and  pressed  with  my 
whole  weight  against  one  of  the  edges  of  the 
molding  which  had  a  darker  hue  about  it  than  the 
rest.  I  felt  it  give,  felt  the  floor  start  from  under 
me  at  the  same  moment,  and  in  another  heard  the 
clatter  and  felt  the  force  of  the  toppling  cabinet 
on  my  shoulder  as  it  and  I  went  shooting  down 
into  the  hole  I  had  been  so  anxious  to  penetrate, 
though  not  in  just  this  startling  fashion. 

The  cry,  uttered  by  Mr.  Steele  as  I  'disap 
peared  from  before  his  eyes,  was  my  first  conscious 
realization  of  what  had  happened  after  I  had 
struck  the  ground  below. 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Are  you  hurt?"  he  cried,  with  real  commisera 
tion,  as  he  leaned  over  to  look  for  me  in  the  hollow 
at  his  feet.  "Wait  and  I  will  drop  down  to  you," 
he  went  on,  swinging  himself  into  a  position  to 
leap. 

I  was  trembling  with  the  shock  and  probably 
somewhat  bruised,  but  not  hurt  enough  to  prevent 
myself  from  scrambling  to  my  feet,  as  he  slid 
down  to  my  side  and  offered  me  his  arm  for  sup 
port. 

"What  did  you  do?"  he  asked.  "Was  it  you 
who  made  this  trap  give  way?  I  see  that  it  is  a 
trap  now," — and  he  pointed  to  the  square  boarding 
hampered  by  its  carpet  which  hung  at  one  side. 

"I  pressed  one  of  those  round  knobs  in  the 
molding,"  I  explained,  laughing  to  hide  the  tears 
of  excitement  in  my  eyes.  "It  had  a  loose  look.  I 
did  it  without  thinking, — that  is,  without  think 
ing  enough  of  what  I  was  doing  to  be  sure  that 
I  was  in  a  safe  enough  position  for  such  an  ex 
periment.  But  I'm  all  right,  and  so  is  the  cabinet. 
See!"  I  pointed  to  where  it  stood,  still  upright, 
216 


I  SEEK  HELP 

its  contents  well  shaken  up  but  itself  in  tolerably 

good  condition. 

"You  are  fortunate,"  said  he.      "Shall  I  help 

you    up   out    of   this?      Your   curiosity   must   be 

amply  satisfied." 

"Not  yet,  not  yet,"  I  cried.     "Oh!  it  is  as  I 

thought,"  I  now  exclaimed,  peering  around  the 
corner  of  the  cabinet  into  a  place  of  total  dark 
ness.  "The  passage  is  here,  running  directly  un 
der  the  alley-way.  Help  me,  help  me,  I  must 
follow  it  to  the  end.  I'm  sure  it  communicates 

with  the  house  next  door." 

He  had  to  humor  me.  I  already  had  one  hand 
on  the  cabinet's  edge,  and  should  have  pushed  it 
aside  by  my  own  strength  if  he  had  not  interfered. 
The  space  we  were  in  was  so  small,  some  four  feet 
square,  I  should  judge,  that  the  utmost  we  could 
do  was  to  shove  one  corner  of  it  slightly  aside, 
so  as  to  make  a  narrow  passage  into  the  space 
beyond.  Through  this  I  slipped  and  should  have 
stepped  recklessly  on  if  he  had  not  caught  me 
back  and  suggested  that  he  go  first  into  what 
might  have  its  own  pitfalls  and  dangers. 

217 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  did  not  fear  these,  but  was  glad,  nevertheless, 
to  yield  to  his  suggestion  and  allow  him  to  pass 
me.  As  he  did  so,  he  took  out  a  match  from  his 
pocket  and  in  another  moment  had  lit  and  held 
it  out.  A  long,  narrow  vaulting  met  our  eyes, 
very  rude  and  propped  up  with  beams  in  an  ir 
regular  way.  It  was  empty  save  for  a  wooden 
stool  or  some  such  object  which  stood  near  our  feet. 
Though  the  small  flame  was  insufficient  to  allow 
us  to  see  very  far,  I  was  sure  that  I  caught  the 
outlines  of  a  roughly  made  door  at  the  extreme 
end  and  was  making  for  this  door,  careless  of 
his  judgment  and  detaining  hand,  when  a  quick, 
strong  light  suddenly  struck  me  in  the  face. 
In  the  square  hollow  made  by  the  opening  of 
this  door,  I  saw  the  figure  of  Miss  Charity  with 
a  lighted  lantern  in  her  hand.  She  was  coming 
my  way:  the  secret  of  the  ghostly  visitations 
which  had  deceived  so  many  people  was  revealed. 


218 


CHAPTER  XV 

HARDLY   A   COINCIDENCE 

The  old  lady's  eyes  met  ours  without  purpose 
or  intelligence.  It  was  plain  that  she  did  not 
see  us;  also  plain  that  she  was  held  back  in  her 
advance  by  some  doubt  in  her  beclouded  brain. 
We  could  see  her  hover,  as  it  were,  at  her  end  of 
the  dark  passage,  while  I  held  my  breath  and 
Mr.  Steele  panted  audibly.  Then  gradually  she 
drew  back  and  disappeared  behind  the  door,  which 
she  forgot  to  shut,  as  we  could  tell  from  the 
gradually  receding  light  and  the  faint  fall  of 
her  footsteps  after  the  last  dim  flicker  had  faded 
away. 

When  she  was  quite  gone,  Mr.  Steele  spoke : 
"You   must   be   satisfied   now,"   he   said.      "Do 
you  still  wish  to  go  on,  or  shall  we  return  and 
explain   this    accident   to    the    girls    whose    voices 
I  certainly  hear  in  the  hall  overhead?" 
219 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"We  must  go  back,"  I  reluctantly  consented.  A 
wild  idea  had  crossed  my  brain  of  following  out  my 
first  impulse  and  of  charging  Miss  Charity  in 
her  own  house  with  the  visits  which  had  from  time 
to  time  depopulated  this  house. 

"I  shall  leave  you  to  make  the  necessary  ex 
planations,"  said  he.  "I  am  really  rushed  with 
business  and  should  be  down-town  on  the  mayor's 
affairs  at  this  very  moment." 

"I  am  quite  ready,"  said  I.  Then  as  I  squeezed 
my  way  through  between  the  corner  of  the  cabinet 
and  the  foundation  wall,  I  could  not  help  asking 
him  how  he  thought  it  possible  for  these  old 
ladies  to  mount  to  the  halls  above  from  the  bottom 
of  the  four-foot  hole  in  which  we  now  stood. 

"The  same  way  in  which  I  now  propose  that 
you  should,"  he  replied,  lifting  into  view  the  ob 
ject  we  had  seen  at  one  side  of  the  passage,  and 
which  now  showed  itself  to  be  a  pair  of  folding 
steps.  "Canny  enough  to  'discover  or  perhaps  to 
open  this  passage,  they  were  canny  enough  to  pro 
vide  themselves  with  means  of  getting  out  of  it. 
Shall  I  help  you?" 

220 


HARDLY  A  COINCIDENCE 

"In  a  minute,"  I  said.  "I  am  so  curious.  How 
do  you  suppose  they  worked  this  trap  from  here? 
They  did  not  press  the  spring  in  the  molding." 

He  pointed  to  one  side  of  the  opening,  where 
part  of  the  supporting  mechanism  was  now  vis 
ible. 

"They  worked  that.  Jt  is  all  simple  enough  on 
this  side  of  the  trap;  the  puzzle  is  about  the 
other.  How  did  they  manage  to  have  all  this 
mechanism  put  in  without  rousing  any  one's  atten 
tion?  And  why  so  much  trouble?" 

"Some  time  I  will  tell  you,"  I  replied,  putting 
my  foot  on  the  step.  "O  girls !"  I  exclaimed,  as 
two  screams  rang  out  above  and  two  agitated  faces 
peered  down  upon  us.  "I've  had  an  accident  and 
a  great  adventure,  but  I've  solved  the  mystery  of 
the  ghost.  It  was  just  one  of  the  two  poor  old 
ladies  next  door.  They  used  to  come  up  through 
this  trap.  Where  is  Mrs.  Packard?" 

They  were  too  speechless  with  wonder  to  an 
swer  me.     I  had  to  reach  up  my  arms  twice  before 
either  of  them  would  lend  me  a  helping  hand.    But 
221 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

when  I  was  once  up  and  Mr.  Steele  after  me,  the 
questions  they  asked  came  so  thick  and  fast  that 
I  almost  choked  in  my  endeavor  to  answer  them 
and  to  get  away.  Nixon  appeared  in  the  middle 
of  it,  and,  congratulating  myself  that  Mr.  Steele 
had  been  able  to  slip  away  to  the  study  while  I 
was  talking  to  the  girls,  I  went  over  the  whole 
story  again  for  his  benefit,  after  which  I  stopped 
abruptly  and  asked  again  where  Mrs.  Packard 
was. 

Nixon,  with  a  face  as  black  as  the  passage  from 
which  I  had  just  escaped,  muttered  some  words 
about  queer  doings  for  respectable  people,  but 
said  nothing  about  his  mistress  unless  the  few 
words  he  added  to  his  final  lament  about  the  cab 
inet  contained  some  allusion  to  her  fondness  for 
the  articles  it  held.  We  could  all  see  that  they 
had  suffered  greatly  from  their  fall. 

Annoyed  at  his  manner,  which  was  that  of  a 
man  personally  aggrieved,  I  turned  to  Ellen. 

"You  have  just  been  up-stairs,"  I  said.  "Is 
Mrs.  Packard  still  in  the  nursery?" 

222 


HARDLY  A  COINCIDENCE 

"She  was,  but  not  more  than  five  minutes  ago 
she  slipped  down-stairs  and  went  out.  It  was 
just  before  the  noise  you  made  falling  down  into 
this  hole." 

Out!  I  was  sorry;  I  wanted  to  disburden  my 
self  at  once. 

"Well,  leave  everything  as  it  is,"  I  commanded, 
despite  the  rebellion  in  Nixon's  eye.  "I  will  wait 
in  the  reception-room  till  she  returns  and  then  tell 
her  at  once.  She  can  blame  nobody  but  me,  if 
she  is  displeased  at  what  she  sees." 

Nixon  grumbled  something  and  moved  off.  The 
girls,  full  of  talk,  ran  up-stairs  to  have  it  out  in 
the  nursery  with  Letty,  and  I  went  toward  the 
front.  How  long  I  should  have  to  stay  there  be 
fore  Mrs.  Packard's  return  I  did  not  know.  She 
might  stay  away  an  hour  and  she  might  stay  away 
all  day.  I  could  simply  wait.  But  it  was  a  happy 
waiting.  I  should  see  a  renewal  of  joy  in  her  and 
a  bounding  hope  for  the  future  when  once  I  told 
my  tale.  It  was  enough  to  keep  me  quiet  for  the 
three  long  hours  I  sat  there  with  my  face  to  the 
223 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

window,  watching  for  the  first  sight  of  her  figure 
on  the  crossing  leading  into  our  street. 

When  it  came,  it  was  already  lunch-time,  but 
there  was  no  evidence  of  hurry  in  her  manner; 
there  was,  rather,  an  almost  painful  hesitation. 
As  she  drew  nearer,  she  raised  her  eyes  to  the 
house-front  and  I  saw  with  what  dread  she  ap 
proached  it,  and  what  courage  it  took  for  her  to 
enter  it  at  all. 

The  sight  of  my  face  at  the  window  altered  her 
expression,  however,  and  she  came  quite  cheerfully 
up  the  steps.  Careful  to  forestall  Nixon  in  his 
duty,  I  opened  the  front  door,  and,  drawing  her 
into  the  room  where  I  had  been  waiting,  I  blurted 
out  my  whole  story  before  she  could  remove  her 
hat. 

"O  Mrs.  Packard,"  I  cried,  "I  have  such  good 
news  for  you.  The  thing  you  feared  hasn't  any 
meaning.  The  house  was  never  haunted;  the 
shadows  which  have  been  seen  here  were  the  shad 
ows  of  real  beings.  There  is  a  secret  entrance  to 
this  house,  and  through  it  the  old  ladies  next  door 

224 


HARDLY  A  COINCIDENCE 

have  come  from  time  to  time  in  search  of  their 
missing  bonds,  or  else  to  frighten  off  all  other  peo 
ple  from  the  chance  of  finding  them.  Shall  I  show 
you  where  the  place  is?" 

Her  face,  when  I  began,  had  shown  such  changes 
I  was  startled;  but  by  the  time  I  had  finished  a 
sort  of  apathy  had  fallen  across  it  and  her  voice 
sounded  hollow  as  she  cried : 

"What  are  you  telling  me?  A  secret  entrance 
we  knew  nothing  about  and  the  Misses  Quinlan  us 
ing  it  to  hunt  about  these  halls  at  night!  Ro 
mantic,  to  be  sure.  Yes,  let  me  see  the  place.  It 
is  very  interesting  and  very  inconvenient.  Will 
you  tell  Nixon,  please,  to  have  this  passage  closed  ?" 

I  felt  a  chill.  If  it  was  interest  she  felt  it  was  a 
very  forced  one.  She  even  paused  to  take  off  her 
hat.  But  when  I  had  drawn  her  through  the  li 
brary  into  the  side  hall,  and  shown  her  the  great 
gap  where  the  cabinet  had  stood,  I  thought  she 
brightened  a  little  and  showed  some  of  the  curi 
osity  I  expected.  But  it  was  very  easily  appeased, 
and  before  I  could  have  made  the  thing  clear  to 
225 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

her  she  was  back  in  the  library,  fingering  her  hat 
and  listening,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  to  everything  but 
my  voice. 

I  did  not  understand  it. 

Making  one  more  effort  I  came  up  close  to  her 
and  impetuously  cried  out: 

"Don't  you  see  what  this  does  to  the  phantasm 
you  professed  to  have  seen  yourself  once  in  this 
very  spot?  It  proves  it  a  myth,  a  product  of  your 
own  imagination,  something  which  it  must  cer 
tainly  be  impossible  for  you  ever  to  fear  again. 
That  is  why  I  made  the  search  which  has  ended 
in  this  discovery.  I  wanted  to  rid  you  of  your 
forebodings.  Do  assure  me  that  I  have.  It  will 
be  such  a  comfort  to  me — and  how  much  more  to 
the  mayor!"  Her  lack-luster  eyes  fell;  her  fin 
gers  closed  on  the  hat  whose  feathers  she  had  been 
trifling  with,  and,  lifting  it,  she  moved  softly  into 
the  reception-room  and  from  there  into  the  hall 
and  up  the  front  stairs.  I  stood  aghast;  she  had 
not  even  heard  what  I  had  been  saying. 

By  the  time  I  had  recovered  my  equanimity 
226 


HARDLY  A  COINCIDENCE 

enough  to  follow,  she  had  disappeared  into  her 
own  room.  It  could  not  have  been  in  a  very  com 
fortable  condition,  for  there  were  evidences  about 
the  hall  that  it  was  being  thoroughly  swept.  As 
I  endeavored  to  pass  the  door,  I  inadvertently 
struck  the  edge  of  a  little  taboret  standing  in  my 
way.  It  toppled  and  a  little  book  lying  on  it  slid 
to  the  floor ;  as  I  stooped  to  pick  it  up  my  already 
greatly  disconcerted  mind  was  still  further  affected 
by  the  glimpse  which  was  given  me  of  its  title. 
Jt  was  this : 

THE  ECCENTRICITIES  or  GHOSTS  AND  COINCI 
DENCES   SUGGESTING   SPIRITUAL   INTER 
FERENCE 

Struck  forcibly  by  a  coincidence  suggesting 
something  quite  different  from  spiritual  interfer 
ence,  I  allowed  the  book  to  open  in  my  hand,  which 
it  did  at  this  evidently  frequently  conned  passage : 

A  book  was  in  my  hand  and  a  strong  light  was  shin 
ing  on  it  and  on  me  from  a  lamp  on  a  near-by  table. 
The  story  was  interesting  and  I  was  following  the  ad 
ventures  it  was  relating,  with  eager  interest,  when  sud- 

227 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

denly  the  character  of  the  light  changed,  a  mist  seemed 
to  pass  before  my  eyes  and,  on  my  looking  up,  I  saw 
standing  between  me  and  the  lamp  the  figure  of  a  man, 
which  vanished  as  1  looked,  leaving  in  my  breast  an 
unutterable  dread  and  in  my  memory  the  glare  of  two 
unearthly  eyes  whose  menace  could  mean  but  one  thing 
—death. 

The  next  day  I  received  news  of  a  fatal  accident  to 
my  husband. 

I  closed  the  little  volume  with  very  strange 
thoughts.  If  Mayor  Packard  had  believed  him 
self  to  have  received  an  explanation  of  his  wife's 
strange  condition  in  the  confession  she  had  made 
of  having  seen  an  apparition  such  as  this  in  her 
library,  or  if  I  had  believed  myself  to  have 
touched  the  bottom  of  the  mystery  absorbing  this 
unhappy  household  in  my  futile  discoveries  of  the 
human  and  practical  character  of  the  visitants 
who  had  haunted  this  house,  then  Mayor  Packard 
and  I  had  made  a  grave  mistake. 


228 


CHAPTER  XVI 

IN    THE    LIBRARY 

I  was  still  in  Mrs.  Packard's  room,  brooding 
over  the  enigma  offered  by  the  similarity  between 
the  account  I  had  just  read  and  the  explanation 
she  had  given  of  the  mysterious  event  which  had 
thrown  such  a  cloud  over  her  life,  when,  moved 
by  some  unaccountable  influence,  I  glanced  up  and 
saw  Nixon  standing  in  the  open  doorway,  gazing 
at  me  with  an  uneasy  curiosity  I  was  sorry  enough 
to  have  inspired. 

"Mrs.  Packard  wants  you,"  he  declared  with 
short  ceremony.  "She's  in  the  library."  And, 
turning  on  his  heel,  he  took  his  deliberate  way 
down-stairs. 

I  followed  hard  after  him,  and,  being  brisk  in 

my   movements,   was   at   his   back   before   he   was 

half-way  to  the  bottom.     He  seemed  to  resent  this, 

for  he  turned  a  baleful  look  back  at  me  and  pur- 

229 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

posely  delayed  his  steps  without  giving  me  the 
right  of  way. 

"Is  Mrs.  Packard  in  a  hurry?"  I  asked.  "If  so, 
you  had  better  let  me  pass." 

He  gave  no  appearance  of  having  heard  me; 
his  attention  had  been  caught  by  something  going 
on  at  the  rear  of  the  hall  we  were  now  approach 
ing.  Following  his  anxious  glance,  I  saw  the  door 
of  the  mayor's  study  open  and  Mrs.  Packard 
come  out.  As  we  reached  the  lower  step,  she 
passed  us  on  her  way  to  the  library.  Wondering 
what  errand  had  taken  her  to  the  study,  which  she 
was  supposed  not  to  visit,  I  turned  to  join  her 
and  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  old  man's  face.  It 
was  more  puckered,  scowling  and  malignant  of 
aspect  than  usual.  I  was  surprised  that  Mrs. 
Packard  had  not  noticed  it.  Surely  it  was  not 
the  countenance  of  a  mere  disgruntled  servant. 
Something  not  to  be  seen  on  the  surface  was  dis 
turbing  this  old  man ;  and,  moving  in  the  shadows 
as  I  was,  I  questioned  whether  it  would  not  con 
duce  to  some  explanation  between  Mrs.  Packard 
230 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

and  myself  if  I  addressed  her  on  the  subject  of 
this  old  serving-man's  peculiar  ways. 

But  the  opportunity  for  doing  this  did  not  come 
that  morning.  On  entering  the  library  I  was  met 
by  Mrs.  Packard  with  the  remark: 

"Have  you  any  interest  in  politics?  Do  you 
know  anything  about  the  subject?" 

"I  have  an  interest  in  Mayor  Packard's  elec 
tion,"  I  smilingly  assured  her;  "and  I  know  that 
in  this  I  represent  a  great  number  of  people  in 
this  town  if  not  in  the  state." 

"You  want  to  see  him  governor?  You  desired 
this  before  you  came  to  this  house?  You  believe 
him  to  be  a  good  man — the  right  man  for  the 
place?" 

"I  certainly  do,  Mrs.  Packard." 

"And  you  represent  a  large  class  who  feel  the 
same  ?" 

"I  think  so,  Mrs.  Packard." 

"I  am  so  glad!"  Her  tone  was  almost  hyster 
ical.  "My  heart  is  set  on  this  election,"  she  ardent 
ly  explained.  "It  means  so  much  this  year.  My 
231 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

husband  is  very  ambitious.  So  am  I — for  him. 
I  would  give — "  there  she  paused,  caught  back, 
it  would  seem,  by  some  warning  thought.  I  took 
advantage  of  her  preoccupation  to  scrutinize  her 
features  more  closely  than  I  had  dared  to  do  while 
she  was  directly  addressing  me.  I  found  them  set 
in  the  stern  mold  of  profound  feeling — womanly 
feeling,  no  doubt,  but  one  actuated  by  causes  far 
greater  than  the  subject,  serious  as  it  was,  appar 
ently  called  for.  She  would  give — 

What  lay  beyond  that  give? 

I  never  knew,  for  she  never  finished  her  sen 
tence. 

Observing  the  breathless  interest  her  manner 
evoked,  or  possibly  realizing  how  nearly  she  had 
come  to  an  unnecessary  if  not  unwise  self -betrayal, 
she  suddenly  smoothed  her  brow  and,  catching  up 
a  piece  of  embroidery  from  the  table,  sat  down 
with  it  in  her  hand. 

"A  wife  is  naturally  heart  and  soul  with  her 
husband,"  she  observed,  with  an  assumption  of 
composure  which  restored  some  sort  of  naturalness 
232 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

to  the  conversation.  "You  are  a  thinking  person, 
I  see,  and  what  is  more,  a  conscientious  one.  There 
are  many,  many  such  in  town;  many  amongst  the 
men  as  well  as  amongst  the  women.  Do  you  think 
— I  am  in  earnest  about  this — that  Mr.  Packard's 
chances  could  be  affected  by — by  anything  that 
might  be  said  about  me?  You  saw,  or  heard  us 
say,  at  least,  that  my  name  had  been  mentioned  in 
the  morning  paper  in  a  way  not  altogether  agree 
able  to  us.  It  was  false,  of  course,  but — "  She 
started,  and  her  work  fell  from  her  hands.  The 
door-bell  had  rung  and  we  could  hear  Nixon  in 
the  hall  hastening  to  answer  it. 

"Miss  Saunders,"  she  hurriedly  interposed  with 
a  great  effort  to  speak  naturally,  "I  have  told 
Nixon  that  I  wish  to  see  Mr.  Steele  if  he  comes  in 
this  morning.  I  wish  to  speak  to  him  about  the 
commission  intrusted  to  him  by  my  husband.  I 
confess  Mr.  Steele  has  not  inspired  me  with  the 
confidence  that  Mr.  Packard  feels  in  him  and  I 
rather  shrink  from  this  interview.  Will  you  be 
good  enough — rather  will  you  show  me  the  great 
233 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

kindness  of  sitting  on  that  low  divan  by  the  fire 
place  where  you  will  not  be  visible — see,  you  may 
have  my  work  to  busy  yourself  with — and  if — he 
may  not,  you  know — if  he  should  show  the  slight 
est  disposition  to  transgress  in  any  way,  rise 
and  show  yourself?" 

I  was  conscious  of  flushing  slightly,  but  she  was 
not  looking  my  way,  and  the  betrayal  cost  me  only 
a  passing  uneasiness.  She  had,  quite  without  re 
alizing  it,  offered  me  the  one  opportunity  I  most 
desired.  In  my  search  for  a  new  explanation  of 
Mrs.  Packard's  rapidly  changing  moods,  I  had 
returned  to  my  first  suspicion — the  attraction  and 
possibly  the  passion  of  the  handsome  secretary  for 
herself.  I  had  very  little  reason  for  entertaining 
such  a  possibility.  I  had  seen  nothing  on  his  part 
to  justify  it  and  but  little  on  hers. 

Yet  in  the  absence  of  every  other  convincing 
cause  of  trouble  I  allowed  myself  to  dwell  on  this 
one,  and  congratulated  myself  upon  the  chance  she 
now  offered  me  of  seeing  and  hearing  how  he  would 
comport  himself  when  he  thought  that  he  was  alone 
234 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

with  her.  Assured  by  the  sounds  in  the  hall  that 
Mr.  Steele  was  approaching,  I  signified  my  acqui 
escence  with  her  wishes,  and,  taking  the  embroidery 
from  her  hand,  sat  down  in  the  place  she  had 
pointed  out. 

I  heard  the  deep  breath  she  drew,  forgot  in  an 
instant  my  purpose  of  questioning  her  concerning 
Nixon,  and  settled  myself  to  listen,  not  only  to 
such  words  as  must  inevitably  pass  between  them, 
but  to  their  tones,  to  the  unconscious  sigh,  to  what 
ever  might  betray  his  feeling  toward  her  or  hers 
toward  him,  convinced  as  I  now  was  that  feeling 
of  some  kind  lay  back  of  an  interview  which  she 
feared  to  hold  without  the  support  of  another's 
secret  presence. 

The  calm  even  tones  of  the  gentleman  himself, 
modulated  to  an  expression  of  utmost  deference, 
were  the  first  to  break  the  silence. 

"You  wish  to  see  me,  Mrs.  Packard?" 

"Yes."  The  tremble  in  this  ordinary  monosyl 
lable  was  slight  but  quite  perceptible.  "Mr.  Pack 
ard  has  given  you  a  task,  concerning  the  necessity 
235 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

of  which  I  should  be  glad  to  learn  your  opinion. 
Do  you  think  it  wise  to — to  probe  into  such 
matters?  Not  that  I  mean  to  deter  you.  You  are 
under  Mr.  Packard's  orders,  but  a  word  from  so 
experienced  a  man  would  be  welcome,  if  only  to 
reconcile  me  to  an  effort  which  must  lead  to  the 
indiscriminate  use  of  my  name  in  quarters  where 
it  hurts  a  woman  to  imagine  it  used  at  all." 

This,  with  her  eyes  on  his  face — of  this  I  felt 
sure.  Her  tone  was  much  too  level  for  her  not 
to  be  looking  directly  at  him.  To  any  response 
he  might  give  of  the  same  nature  I  had  no  clue, 
but  his  tone  when  he  answered  was  as  cool  and  def 
erentially  polite  as  was  to  be  expected  from  a  man 
chosen  by  Mayor  Packard  for  his  private  secre 
tary. 

"Mrs.  Packard,  your  fears  are  very  natural.  A 
woman  shrinks  from  such  inquiries,  even  when 
sustained  by  the  consciousness  that  nothing  can  rob 
her  name  of  its  deserved  honor.  But  if  we  let  one 
innuendo  pass,  how  can  we  prevent  a  second?  The 
man  who  did  this  thing  should  be  punished.  In 
this  I  agree  with  Mayor  Packard." 
236 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

She  stirred  impulsively.  I  could  hear  the  rustle 
of  her  dress  as  she  moved,  probably  to  lessen  the 
distance  between  them. 

"You  are  honest  with  me?"  she  urged.  "You 
do  agree  with  Mr.  Packard  in  this?" 

His  answer  was  firm,  straightforward,  and,  as 
far  as  I  could  judge,  free  from  any  objectionable 
feature. 

"I  certainly  do,  Mrs.  Packard.  The  hesitation 
I  expressed  when  he  first  spoke  was  caused  by  the 
one  consideration  mentioned, — my  fear  lest  some 
thing  might  go  amiss  in  C to-night  if  I 

busied  myself  otherwise  than  with  the  necessities  of 
the  speech  with  which  he  is  about  to  open  his  cam 
paign." 

"I  see.  You  are  very  desirous  that  Mr.  Pack 
ard  should  win  in  this  election?" 

"I  am  his  secretary,  and  was  largely  instrument 
al  in  securing  his  nomination  for  governor,"  was 
the  simple  reply. 

There  was  a  pause — how  filled,  I  would  have 
given  half  my  expected  salary  to  know.  Then  I 
237 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

heard  her  ask  him  the  very  question  she  had  asked 

me. 

"Do  you  think  that  in  the  event  of  your  not 
succeeding  in  forcing  an  apology  from  the  man 
who  inserted  that  objectionable  paragraph  against 
myself — that — that  such  hints  of  something  being 
wrong  with  me  will  in  any  way  affect  Mr.  Packard's 
chances — lose  him  votes,  I  mean?  Will  the  hus 
band  suffer  because  of  some  imagined  lack  in  his 
wife?" 

"One  can  not  say."  Thus  appealed  to,  the  man 
seemed  to  weigh  his  words  carefully,  out  of  con 
sideration  for  her,  I  thought.  "No  real  admirer 
of  the  mayor's  would  go  over  to  the  enemy  from 
any  such  cause  as  that.  Only  the  doubtful — the 
half-hearted — those  who  are  ready  to  grasp  at  any 
excuse  for  voting  with  the  other  party,  would  al 
low  a  consideration  of  the  mayor's  domestic  rela 
tions  to  interfere  with  their  confidence  in  him  a,s 
a  public  officer." 

"But  these — "  How  I  wish  I  could  have  seen 
her  face!  "These  half-hearted  voters,  their  easily 

238 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

stifled  convictions  are  what  make  majorities,"  she 
stammered.  Mr.  Steele  may  have  bowed ;  he  prob 
ably  did,  for  she  went  on  confidently  and  with  a 
certain  authority  not  observable  in  the  tone  of 
her  previous  remarks.  "You  are  right.  The  para 
graph  reflecting  on  me  must  be  traced  to  its  source. 
The  lie  must  be  met  and  grappled  with.  I  was  not 
well  last  week  and  showed  it,  but  I  am  perfectly 
well  to-day  and  am  resolved  to  show  that,  too.  No 
skeleton  hangs  in  the  Packard  closet.  I  am  a 
happy  wife  and  a  happy  mother.  Let  them  come 
here  and  see.  This  morning  I  shall  issue  invita 
tions  for  a  dinner  to  be  given  the  first  night  you 
can  assure  me  Mr.  Packard  will  be  at  home.  Do 
you  know  of  any  such  night?" 

"On  Friday  week  he  has  no  speech  to  make." 
Mrs.  Packard  seemed  to  consider.     Finally  she 
said:    "When  you  see  him,  tell  him  to  leave  that 
evening  free.     And,  Mr.  Steele,  if  you  will  be  so 
good,  give  me  the  names  of  some  of  those  half 
hearted  ones — critical  people  who  have  to  see  in 
order  to  believe.     I  shall  have  them  at  my  table — 
239 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  shall  let  them  see  that  the  shadow  which  en 
veloped  me  was  ephemeral;  that  a  woman  can  rise 
above  all  weakness  in  the  support  of  a  husband 
she  loves  and  honors  as  I  do  Mr.  Packard." 

She  must  have  looked  majestic.  Her  voice  thrill 
ing  with  anticipated  triumph  rang  through  the 
room,  awaking  echoes  which  surely  must  have 
touched  the  heart  of  this  man  if,  as  I  had  sometimes 
thought,  he  cherished  an  unwelcome  admiration 
for  her. 

But  when  he  answered,  there  was  no  hint  in  his 
finely  modulated  tones  of  any  chord  having  been 
touched  in  his  breast,  save  the  legitimate  one  of 
respectful  appreciation  of  a  woman  who  fulfilled 
the  expectation  of  one  alive  to  what  is  admirable 
in  her  sex. 

"Your  idea  is  a  happy  one,"  said  he.  "I  can 
give  you  three  names  now.  Those  of  Judge  Whit- 
taker,  Mr.  Dumont,  the  lawyer,  and  the  two 
Mowries,  father  and  son." 

"Thank  you.  I  am  indebted  to  you,  Mr.  Steele, 
for  the  patience  with  which  you  have  met  and 
answered  my  doubts." 

240 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

He  ma'de  some  reply,  added  something  about  not 
seeing  her  again  till  he  returned  with  the  mayor, 
then  I  heard  the  door  open  and  quietly  shut. 

The  interview  was  over,  without  my  having  felt 
called  upon  to  show  myself. 

An  interval  of  silence,  and  then  I  heard  her 
voice.  She  had  thrown  herself  down  at  the  piano 
and  was  singing  gaily,  ecstatically. 

Approaching  her  in  undisguised  wonder  at  this 
new  mood,  I  stood  at  her  back  and  listened.  I  do 
not  suppose  she  had  what  is  called  a  great  voice, 
but  the  feeling  back  of  it  at  this  moment  of  re 
action  gave  it  a  great  quality.  The  piece — some 
operatic  aria — was  sung  in  a  way  to  thrill  the  soul. 
Opening  with  a  burst,  it  ended  with  low  notes  of 
an  intense  sweetness  like  sobs,  not  of  grief,  but 
happiness.  In  their  midst  and  while  the  tones 
sank  deepest,  a  child's  voice  rose  in  the  hall  and 
we  heard,  uttered  at  the  very  door: 

"Mama  busy;  mama  sing." 

With  a  cry  she  sprang  from  the  piano  and, 
bounding  to  the  door,  flung  it  open  and  caught 
her  child  in  her  arms. 

241 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Darling!  darling!  my  darling  I"  she  exclaimed 
in  a  burst  of  mother-rapture,  crushing  the  child 
to  her  breast  and  kissing  it  repeatedly. 

Then  she  began  to  dance,  holding  the  baby  in 
her  arms  and  humming  a  waltz.  As  I  stood  on  one 
side  in  my  own  mood  of  excited  sympathy,  I  caught 
fleeting  glimpses  of  their  two  faces,  as  she  went 
whirling  about.  Hers  was  beautiful  in  her  new 
relief — if  it  was  a  relief — the  child's  dimpled  with 
delight  at  the  rapid  movement — a  lovely  picture. 
Letty,  who  stood  waiting  in  the  doorway,  showed 
a  countenance  full  of  surprise.  Mrs.  Packard  was 
the  first  to  feel  tired.  Stopping  her  dance,  she 
peered  round  at  the  baby's  face  and  laughed. 

"Was  that  good?"  she  asked.  "Are  you  glad 
to  have  mama  merry  again?  I  am  going  to  be 
merry  all  the  time  now.  With  such  a  dear,  dear 
dearie  of  a  baby,  how  can  I  help  it?"  And  whirl 
ing  about  in  my  direction,  she  held  up  the  child 
for  inspection,  crying:  "Isn't  she  a  darling!  Do 
you  wonder  at  my  happiness?" 

Indeed  I  did  not;  the  sweet  baby-face  full  of 
242 


IN  THE  LIBRARY 

glee  was  irresistible ;  so  was  the  pat-pat  of  the  two 
dimpled  hands  on  her  mother's  shoulders.  With  a 
longing  all  women  can  understand,  I  held  out  my 
own  arms. 

"I  wonder  if  she  will  come  to  me?"  said  I. 

But  though  I  got  a  smile,  the  little  hands  closed 
still  more  tightly  round  the  mother's  neck. 

"Mama  dear !"  she  cried,  "mama  dear !"  and  the 
tender  emphasis  on  the  endearing  word  completed 
the  charm.  Tears  sprang  to  Mrs.  Packard's  eyes, 
and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  she  passed  the 
clinging  child  over  to  the  nurse  waiting  to  take 
her  out. 

"That  was  the  happiest  moment  of  my  life!" 
fell  unconsciously  from  Mrs.  Packard's  lips  as  the 
two  disappeared;  but  presently,  meeting  my  eyes, 
she  blushed  and  made  haste  to  remark: 

"I  certainly  did  Mr.  Steele  an  arrant  injustice. 
He  was  very  respectful;  I  wonder  how  I  ever  got 
the  idea  he  could  be  anything  else." 

Anxious  myself  about  this  very  fact,  I  attempted 
to  reply,  but  she  gave  me  no  opportunity. 

243 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"And  now  for  those  dinner  Invitations!"  she 
gaily  suggested.  "While  I  feel  like  it  I  must  busy 
myself  in  making  out  my  list.  It  will  give  me 
something  new  to  think  about." 


244 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    TWO    WEIRD    SISTERS 

Ellen  seemed  to  understand  my  anxiety  about 
Mrs.  Packard  and  to  sympathize  with  it.  That 
afternoon  as  I  passed  her  in  the  hall  she  whis 
pered  softly: 

"I  have  just  been  unpacking  that  bag  and  put 
ting  everything  back  into  place.  She  told  me  she 
had  packed  it  in  readiness  to  go  with  Mr.  Packard 
if  he  desired  it  at  the  last  minute." 

I  doubted  this  final  statement,  but  the  fact  that 
the  bag  had  been  unpacked  gave  me  great  relief. 
I  began  to  look  forward  with  much  pleasure  to  a 
night  of  unbroken  rest. 

Alas !  rest  was  not  for  me  yet.  Relieved  as  to 
Mrs.  Packard,  I  found  my  mind  immediately  re 
verting  to  the  topic  which  had  before  engrossed  it, 
though  always  before  in  her  connection.  The  mys 
tery  of  the  so-called  ghosts  had  been  explained, 
245 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

but  not  the  loss  of  the  bonds,  which  had  driven 
my  poor  neighbors  mad.  This  was  still  a  fruit 
ful  subject  of  thought,  though  I  knew  that  such 
well-balanced  and  practical  minds  as  Mayor  Pack 
ard's  or  Mr.  Steele's  would  have  but  little  sympathy 
with  the  theory  ever  recurring  to  me.  Could  this 
money  be  still  in  the  house? — the  possibility  of 
such  a  fact  worked  and  worked  upon  my  imagina 
tion  till  I  grew  as  restless  as  I  had  been  over  the 
mystery  of  the  ghosts  and  presently  quite  as  ready 
for  action. 

Possibly  the  hurried  glimpse  I  had  got  of  Miss 
Thankful's  countenance  a  little  while  before,  in 
the  momentary  visit  she  paid  to  the  attic  window 
at  which  I  had  been  accustomed  to  see  either  her 
or  her  sister  constantly  sit,  inspired  me  with  my 
present  interest  in  this  old  and  wearing  trouble 
of  theirs  and  the  condition  into  which  it  had  thrown 
their  minds. 

I  thought  of  their  nights  of  broken  rest  while 
they  were  ransacking  the  rooms  below  and  testing 
over  and  over  the  same  boards,  the  same  panels 
246 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

for  the  secret  hiding-place  of  their  lost  treasure,  of 
their  foolish  attempts  to  scare  away  all  other  in 
truders,  and  the  racking  of  nerve  and  muscle  which 
must  have  attended  efforts  so  out  of  keeping  with 
their  age  and  infirmities. 

It  would  be  natural  to  regard  the  whole  matter 
as  an  hallucination  on  their  part,  to  disbelieve  in 
the  existence  of  the  bonds,  and  to  regard  Miss 
Thankful's  whole  story  to  Mrs.  Packard  as  the 
play  of  a  diseased  imagination. 

But  I  could  not,  would  not,  carry  my  own  doubts 
to  this  extent.  The  bonds  had  been  in  existence; 
Miss  Thankful  had  seen  them;  and  the  one  ques 
tion  calling  for  answer  now  was,  whether  they  had 
been  long  ago  found  and  carried  off,  or  whether 
they  were  still  within  the  reach  of  the  fortunate 
hand  capable  of  discovering  their  hiding-place. 

The  nurse  who,  according  to  Miss  Thankful,  had 
wakened  such  dread  in  the  dying  man's  breast  as 
to  drive  him  to  the  attempt  which  had  ended  in 
this  complete  loss  of  the  whole  treasure,  appeared 
to  me  the  chief  factor  in  the  first  theory.  If  any 
247 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

one  had  ever  found  these  bonds,  it  was  she;  how, 
it  was  not  for  me  to  say,  in  my  present  ignorant 
state  of  the  events  following  the  reclosing  of  the 
house  after  this  old  man's  death  and  burial.  But 
the  supposition  of  an  utter  failure  on  the  part  of 
this  woman  and  of  every  other  subsequent  resident 
of  the  house  to  discover  this  mysterious  hiding- 
place,  wakened  in  me  no  real  instinct  of  search.  I 
felt  absolutely  and  at  once  that  any  such  effort 
in  my  present  blind  state  of  mind  would  be  totally 
unavailing.  The  secret  trap  and  the  passage  it 
led  to,  with  all  the  opportunities  they  offered  for 
the  concealment  of  a  few  folded  documents,  did 
not,  strange  as  it  may  appear  at  first  blush,  sug 
gest  the  spot  where  these  papers  might  be  lying 
hid.  The  manipulation  of  the  concealed  mechan 
ism  and  the  difficulties  attending  a  descent  there, 
even  on  the  part  of  a  well  man,  struck  me  as  pre 
cluding  all  idea  of  any  such  solution  to  thfe 
mystery.  Strong  as  dying  men  sometimes  are  in 
the  last  flickering  up  of  life  in  the  speedily  dis 
solving  frame,  the  lowering  of  this  trap,  and,  above 

248 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

all,  the  drawing  of  it  back  into  place,  which  I 
instinctively  felt  would  be  the  hardest  act  of  the 
two,  would  be  beyond  the  utmost  fire  or  force  con 
ceivable  in  a  dying  man.  No,  even  if  he,  as  a 
member  of  the  family,  knew  of  this  subterranean 
retreat,  he  could  not  have  made  use  of  it.  I  did 
not  even  accept  the  possibility  sufficiently  to  ap 
proach  the  place  again  with  this  new  inquiry  in 
mind.  Yet  what  a  delight  lay  in  the  thought  of 
a  possible  finding  of  this  old  treasure,  and  the 
new  life  which  would  follow  its  restoration  to  the 
hands  which  had  once  touched  it  only  to  lose  it  on 
the  instant. 

The  charm  of  this  idea  was  still  upon  me  when 
I  woke  the  next  morning.  At  breakfast  I  thought 
of  the  bonds,  and  in  the  hour  which  followed,  the 
work  I  was  doing  for  Mrs.  Packard  in  the  library 
was  rendered  difficult  by  the  constant  recurrence 
of  the  one  question  into  my  mind:  "What  would 
a  man  in  such  a  position  do  with  the  money  he 
was  anxious  to  protect  from  the  woman  he  saw 
coming  and  secure  to  his  sister  who  had  just 
249 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

stepped  next  door?"  When  a  moment  came  at 
last  in  which  I  could  really  indulge  in  these  in 
truding  thoughts,  I  leaned  back  in  my  chair  and 
tried  to  reconstruct  the  room  according  to  Mrs. 
Packard's  description  of  it  at  that  time.  I  even 
pulled  my  chair  over  to  that  portion  of  the  room 
where  his  bed  had  stood,  and,  choosing  the  spot 
where  his  head  would  naturally  lie,  threw  back 
my  own  on  the  reclining  chair  I  had  chosen,  and 
allowed  my  gaze  to  wander  over  the  walls  before 
me  in  a  vague  hope  of  reproducing,  in  my  mind, 
the  ideas  which  must  have  passed  through  his  be 
fore  he  rose  and  thrust  those  papers  into  their 
place  of  concealment.  Alas !  those  walls  were  bar 
ren  of  all  suggestion,  and  my  eyes  went  wandering 
through  the  window  before  me  in  a  vague  appeal, 
when  a  sudden  remembrance  of  his  last  moments 
struck  me  sharply  and  I  bounded  up  with  a  new 
thought,  a  new  idea,  which  sent  me  in  haste  to  my 
room  and  brought  me  down  again  In  hat  and 
jacket.  Mrs.  Packard  had  once  said  that  the  ladies 
next  door  were  pleased  to  have  callers,  and  advised 
250 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

me  to  visit  them.  I  would  test  her  judgment  in  the 
matter.  Early  though  it  was,  I  would  present  my 
self  at  the  neighboring  door  and  see  what  my 
reception  would  be.  The  discovery  I  had  made  in 
my  unfortunate  accident  in  the  old  entry  way 
should  be  my  excuse.  Apologies  were  in  order 
from  us  to  them ;  I  would  make  these  apologies. 
•  I  was  prepared  to  confront  poverty  in  this  bare 
and  comfortless-looking  abode  of  decayed  gentil 
ity.  But  I  did  not  expect  quite  so  many  evidences 
of  it  as  met  my  eyes  as  the  door  swung  slowly 
open  some  time  after  my  persistent  knock,  and  I 
beheld  Miss  Charity's  meager  figure  outlined 
against  walls  and  a  flight  of  uncarpeted  stairs 
such  as  I  had  never  seen  before  out  of  a  tenement 
house.  I  may  have  dropped  my  eyes,  but  I  recov 
ered  myself  immediately.  Marking  the  slow  awak 
ening  of  pleasure  in  the  wan  old  face  as  she  recog 
nized  me,  I  uttered  some  apology  for  my  early  call 
and  then  waited  to  see  if  she  would  welcome  me  in. 
She  not  only  did  so,  but  did  it  with  such  a  sud 
den  breaking  up  of  her  rigidity  into  the  pliancy 
251 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

of  a  naturally  hospitable  nature,  that  my  heart  was 
touched,  and  I  followed  her  into  the  great  bare 
apartment,  which  must  have  once  answered  the 
purposes  of  a  drawing-room,  with  very  different 
feelings  from  those  with  which  I  had  been  ac 
customed  to  look  upon  her  face  in  the  old  attic 
window. 

"I  should  like  to  see  your  sister,  too,"  I  said, 
as  she  hastily,  but  with  a  certain  sort  of  ceremony, 
too,  pushed  forward  one  of  the  ancient  chairs 
which  stood  at  long  intervals  about  the  room.  "I 
have  not  been  your  neighbor  very  long,  but  I 
should  like  to  pay  my  respects  to  both  of  you." 

I  had  purposely  spoken  with  the  formal  pre 
cision  she  had  been  accustomed  to  in  her  earlier 
days,  and  I  could  see  how  perceptibly  her  self- 
respect  returned  at  this  echo  of  the  past,  giving 
her  a  sudden  dignity  which  made  me  forget  for 
the  moment  her  neglected  appearance. 

"I  will  summon  my  sister,"  she  returned,  dis 
appearing  quietly  from  the  room. 

I  waited  fifteen  minutes,  then  Miss  Thankful 
252 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

entered,  dressed  in  her  very  best,  followed  by  my 
first  acquaintance  in  her  same  gown, ,  but  with 
a  little  cap  on  her  head.  The  cap,  despite  its 
faded  ribbons  carefully  pressed  out  but  with  too 
cold  an  iron,  gave  her  an  old-time  fashionable  air 
which  for  the  moment  created  the  impression  that 
she  might  have  been  a  beauty  and  a  belle  in  her 
early  days,  which  I  afterward  discovered  to  be  true. 

It  was  Miss  Thankful,  however,  who  had  the 
personal  presence,  and  it  was  she  who  now  ex 
pressed  their  sense  of  the  honor,  pushing  forward 
another  chair  than  that  from  which  I  had  risen, 
with  the  remark: 

"Take  this,  I  pray.  Many  an  honored  guest 
has  occupied  this  seat.  Let  us  see  you  in  it." 

I  could  detect  no  difference  between  the  one  she 
offered  and  the  one  in  which  I  had  just  sat,  but  I 
at  once  stepped  forward  and  took  the  chair  she 
proffered.  She  bowed  and  Miss  Charity  bowed, 
and  then  they  seated  themselves  side  by  side  on 
the  hair-cloth  sofa,  which  was  the  only  other  ar 
ticle  of  furniture  in  the  room. 
253 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"We  are — we  are  preparing  to  move,"  stam 
mered  Miss  Charity,  a  faint  flush  tingeing  her 
faded  cheeks,  as  she  caught  the  involuntary  glance 
I  had  cast  about  me. 

Miss  Thankful  bridled  and  gave  her  sister  a  look 
of  open  rebuke.  She  had,  as  one  could  instantly 
see  from  her  strong  features  and  purposeful  ways, 
been  a  woman  of  decided  parts  and  of  strict,  up 
right  character.  Weakened  as  she  was,  the  shadow 
of  an  untruth  disturbed  her.  Her  pride  ran  in  a 
different  groove  from  that  of  her  once  over-com 
plimented,  over-fostered  sister.  She  was  going  to 
add  a  protest  in  words  to  that  expressed  by  her  ges 
ture,  but  I  hastily  prevented  this  by  coming  at  once 
to  the  point  of  my  errand. 

"My  excuse  for  this  early  call,"  I  said,  this 
time  addressing  Miss  Thankful,  "lies  in  an  ad 
venture  which  occurred  to  me  yesterday  in  the  ad 
joining  house."  It  was  painful  to  see  how  they 
both  started,  and  how  they  instinctively  caught 
each  at  the  other's  hand  as  they  sat  side  by  side 
on  the  sofa,  as  if  only  thus  they  could  bear  the 
254 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

shock  of  what  might  be  coming  next.  I  had  to 
nerve  myself  to  proceed.  "You  know,  or  rather  I 
gather  from  your  kind  greetings  that  you  know 
that  I  am  at  present  staying  with  Mrs.  Packard. 
She  is  very  kind  and  we  spend  many  pleasant  hours 
together ;  but  of  course  some  of  the  time  I  have  to 
be  alone,  and  then  I  try  to  amuse  myself  by  look 
ing  about  at  the  various  interesting  things  which 
are  scattered  through  the  house." 

A  gasp  from  Miss  Charity,  a  look  still  more  ex 
pressive  from  Miss  Thankful.  I  hastened  to  cut 
their  suspense  short. 

"You  know  the  little  cabinet  they  have  placed 
in  the  old  entrance  pointing  this  way?  Well,  I 
was  looking  at  that  when  the  whim  seized  me — I 
hardly  know  how — to  press  one  of  the  knobs  in 
the  molding  which  runs  about  the  doorway,  when 
instantly  everything  gave  way  under  me  and  I 
fell  into  a  deep  hole  which  had  been  scooped  out 
of  the  alley-way — nobody  knows  for  what." 

A  cry  and  they  were  on  their  feet,  still  holding 
hands  and  endeavoring  to  show  nothing  but  con 
cern  for  my  disaster. 

255 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Oh,  I  wasn't  hurt,"  I  smiled.  "I  was  fright 
ened,  of  course,  but  not  so  much  as  to  lose  my 
curiosity.  When  I  got  to  my  feet  again,  I  looked 
about  in  this  surprising  hole — " 

"It  was  our  uncle's  way  of  reaching  his  wine- 
cellar,"  Miss  Thankful  explained  with  great  dig 
nity  as  she  and  her  sister  sank  back  into  their 
seats.  "He  had  some  remarkable  old  wine,  and, 
as  he  was  covetous  of  it,  he  conceived  this  way  of 
securing  it  from  everybody's  knowledge  but  his 
own.  It  was  a  strange  way,  but  he  was  a  little 
touched,"  she  added,  laying  a  slow  impressive  fin 
ger  on  her  forehead,  "just  a  little  touched  here." 

The  short,  significant  glance  she  cast  at  Char 
ity  as  she  said  this,  and  the  little  smile  she  gave 
were  to  give  me  to  understand  that  this  weakness 
had  descended  in  the  family.  I  felt  my  heart  con 
tract  ;  my  self-imposed  task  was  a  harder  one  than 
I  had  anticipated,  but  I  could  not  shirk  it  now. 

"Did  this  wine-cellar  you  mention  run  all  the 
way  to  this  house?"  I  lightly  inquired.  "I  stum 
bled  on  a  passage  leading  here,  which  I  thought 
256 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

you  ought  to  know  is  now  open  to  any  one  in 
Mayor  Packard's  house.  Of  course,  it  will  be 
closed  soon, ' '  I  hastened  to  add  as  Miss  Charity 
hurriedly  rose  at  her  sister's  quick  look  and  anx 
iously  left  the  room.  "Mrs.  Packard  will  see  to 
that." 

"Yes,  yes,  I  have  no  doubt;  she's  a  very  good 
woman,  a  very  fair  woman,  don't  you  think  so, 
Miss  — " 

"My  name  is  Saunders. " 

"A  very  good  name.  I  knew  a  fine  family  of 
that  name  when  I  was  younger.  There  was  one  of 
them — his  name  was  Robert —  Here  she  ram 
bled  on  for  several  minutes  as  if  this  topic  and  no 
other  filled  her  whole  mind;  then,  as  if  suddenly 
brought  back  to  what  started  it,  she  uttered  in 
sudden  anxiety,  "You  think  well  of  Mrs.  Pack 
ard?  You  have  confidence  in  her?" 

I  allowed  myself  to  speak  with  all  the  enthusi 
asm  she  so  greedily  desired. 

'  'Indeed  I  have, ' '  I  cried.  '  'I  think  she  can  be 
absolutely  depended  on  to  do  the  right  thing  every 
257 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

time.  You  are  fortunate  in  having  such  good 
neighbors  at  the  time  of  this  mishap." 

At  this  minute  Miss  Charity  reentered.  Her 
panting  condition,  as  well  as  the  unsettled  posi 
tion  of  the  cap  on  her  head,  told  very  plainly 
where  she  had  been.  Reseating  herself,  she  looked 
at  Miss  Thankful  and  Miss  Thankful  looked  at 
her,  but  no  word  passed.  They  evidently  under 
stood  each  other. 

"I'm  obliged  to  Mrs.  Packard,"  now  fell  from 
Miss  Thankful's  lips,  "and  to  you,  too,  young 
lady,  for  acquainting  us  with  this  accident.  The 
passage  we  extended  ourselves  after  taking  up  our 
abode  in  this  house.  We — we  did  not  see  why  we 
should  not  profit  by  our  ancestor's  old  and  undis 
covered  wine-cellar  to  secure  certain  things  which 
were  valuable  to  us." 

Her  hesitation  in  uttering  this  final  sentence — 
a  sentence  all  the  more  marked  because  naturally 
she  was  a  very  straightforward  person — awoke  my 
doubt  and  caused  me  to  ask  myself  what  she  meant 
by  this  word  "secure."  Did  she  mean,  as  circum- 
258 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS  * 

stances  went  to  show  and  as  I  had  hitherto  be 
lieved,  that  they  had  opened  up  this  passage  for 
the  purpose  of  a  private  search  in  their  old  home 
for  the  lost  valuables  they  believed  to  be  concealed 
there?  Or  had  they,  under  some  temporary  sug 
gestion  of  their  disorganized  brains,  themselves 
hidden  away  among  the  rafters  of  this  unexplored 
spot  the  treasure  they  believed  lost  and  now  con 
stantly  bewailed? 

The  doubt  thus  temporarily  raised  in  my  mind 
made  me  very  uneasy  for  a  moment,  but  I  soon  dis 
missed  it  and  dropping  this  subject  for  the  nonce, 
began  to  speak  of  the  houses  as  they  now  looked 
and  of  the  changes  which  had  evidently  been  made 
in  them  since  they  had  left  the  one  and  entered 
the  other. 

"I  understand,"  I  ventured  at  last,  "that  in  those 
days  this  house  also  had  a  door  opening  on  the 
alley- way.  Where  did  it  lead — do  you  mind  my 
asking? — into  a  room  or  into  a  hallway?  I  am 
so  interested  in  old  houses." 

They  did  not  resent  this  overt  act  of  curiosity: 
259 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  had  expected  Miss  Thankful  to,  but  she  didn't. 
Some  recollection  connected  with  the  name  of 
Saunders  had  softened  her  heart  toward  me  and 
made  her  regard  with  indulgence  an  interest  which 
she  might  otherwise  have  looked  upon  as  intrusive. 

"We  long  ago  boarded  up  that  door,"  she  an 
swered.  "It  was  of  very  little  use  to  us  from  our 
old  library." 

"It  looked  into  one  of  the  rooms  then?"  I  per 
sisted,  but  with  a  wary  gentleness  which  I  felt 
could  not  offend. 

"No;  there  is  no  room  there,  only  a  passage 
way.  But  it  has  closets  in  it,  and  we  did  not  like 
to  be  seen  going  to  them  any  time  of  day.  The 
door  had  glass  panes  in  it,  you  know,  just  like  a 
window.  It  made  the  relations  so  intimate  with 
people  only  a  few  feet  away. ' ' 

"Naturally,"  I  cried,  "I  don't  wonder  you 
wanted  to  shut  them  off  if  you  could."  Then  with 
a  sudden  access  of  interest  which  I  vainly  tried  to 
hide,  I  thought  of  the  closets  and  said  with  a  smile, 
"The  closets  were  for  china,  I  suppose;  old  fam 
ilies  have  so  much  china. ' ' 
260 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

Miss  Charity  nodded,  complacency  in  every  fea 
ture  ;  but  Miss  Thankful  thought  it  more  decorous 
to  seem  to  be  indifferent  in  this  matter. 

"Yes,  china;  old  pieces,  not  very  valuable.  We 
gave  what  we  had  of  worth  to  our  sister  when  she 
married.  We  keep  other  things  there,  too,  but 
they  are  not  important.  We  seldom  go  to  those 
closets  now,  so  we  don't  mind  the  darkness." 

"I — I  dote  on  old  china,"  I  exclaimed,  carefully 
restraining  myself  from  appearing  unduly  curi 
ous.  Won't  you  let  me  look  at  it?  I  know  that 
it  is  more  valuable  than  you  think.  It  will  make 
me  happy  for  the  whole  day,  if  you  will  let  me  see 
these  old  pieces.  They  may  not  look  beautiful  to 
you,  you  are  so  accustomed  to  them ;  but  to  me 
every  one  must  have  a  history,  or  a  history  my 
imagination  will  supply." 

Miss  Charity  looked  gently  but  perceptibly 
frightened.  She  shook  her  head,  saying  in  her 
weak,  fond  tones; 

"They  are  too  dusty;  we  are  not  such  house 
keepers  as  we  used  to  be ;     I  am  ashamed — ' ' 
261 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

But  Miss  Thankful's  peremptory  tones  cut  her 
short. 

"Miss  Saunders  will  excuse  a  little  dust.  We 
are  so  occupied,"  she  explained,  with  her  eye  fixed 
upon  me  in  almost  a  challenging  way,  "that  we 
can  afford  little  time  for  unnecessary  housework. 
If  she  wants  to  see  these  old  relics  of  a  former  day, 
let  her.  You,  Charity,  lead  the  way." 

I  was  trembling  with  gratitude  and  the  hopes 
I   had  suppressed,  but  I  managed  to   follow  the 
apologetic  figure  of  the  humiliated  old  lady  with 
a  very  good  grace.     As  we  quitted  the  room  we 
were  in,  through  a  door  at  the  end  leading  into  the 
dark  passageway,  I  thought  of  the  day  when,  ac 
cording  to  Mrs.  Packard's  story,  Miss  Thankful 
had  come  running  across  the  alley  and  through 
this  very  place  to  astound  her  sister  and  nephew 
in  the  drawing-room  with  the  news  of  the  large 
legacy  destined  so  soon  to  be  theirs.     That  was  two 
years  ago,  and  to-day —     I  proceeded  no  further 
with  what  was  in  my  mind,  for  my  interest  was 
centered  in  the  closet  whose  door  Miss  Charity  had 
just  flung  open. 

262 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

"You  see,"  murmured  that  lady,  "that  we  haven't 
anything  of  extraordinary  interest  to  show  you. 
Do  you  want  me  to  hand  some  of  them  down?  I 
don't  believe  that  it  will  pay  you." 

I  cast  a  look  at  the  shelves  and  felt  a  real  disap 
pointment.  Not  that  the  china  was  of  too  ordi 
nary  a  nature  to  attract,  but  that  the  pieces  I  saw, 
and  indeed  the  full  contents  of  the  shelves,  failed 
to  include  what  I  was  vaguely  in  search  of  and  had 
almost  brought  my  mind  into  condition  to  expect. 

"Haven't  you  another  closet  here?"  I  faltered. 
"These  pieces  are  pretty,  but  I  am  sure  you  have 
some  that  are  larger  and  with  the  pattern  more 
dispersed — a  platter  or  a  vegetable  dish." 

"No,  no,"  murmured  Miss  Charity,  drawing 
back  as  she  let  the  door  slip  from  her  hand. 
"Really,  Thankful," — this  to  her  sister  who  was 
pulling  open  another  door,^ — "the  look  of  those 
shelves  is  positively  disreputable — all  the  old  things 
we  have  had  in  the  house  for  years.  Don't — " 

"Oh,  do  let  me  see  that  old  tureen  up  on  the 
top  shelf,"  I  put  in.     "I  like  that." 
263 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Miss  Thankful 's  long  arm  went  up,  and,  despite 
Miss  Charity's  complaint  that  it  was  too  badly 
cracked  to  handle,  it  was  soon  down  and  placed 
in  my  hands.  I  muttered  my  thanks,  gave  utter 
ance  to  sundry  outbursts  of  enthusiasm,  then  with 
a  sudden  stopping  of  my  heart-beats,  I  lifted  the 
cover  and— 

"Let  me  set  it  down,"  I  gasped,  hurriedly  re 
placing  the  cover.  I  was  really  afraid  I  should 
drop  it. 

Miss  Thankful  took  it  from  me  and  rested  it  on 
the  edge  of  the  lower  shelf. 

'  'Why,  how  you  tremble,  child ! ' '  she  cried.  '  'Do 
you  like  old  Colonial  blue  ware  as  well  as  that?  If 
you  do,  you  shall  have  this  piece.  Charity,  bring 
a  duster,  or,  better,  a  damp  cloth.  You  shall  have 
it,  yes,  you  shall  have  it. ' ' 

"Wait !"  I  could  hardly  speak.  "Don't  get  a 
cloth  yet.  Come  with  me  back  into  the  parlor,  and 
bring  the  tureen.  I  want  to  see  it  in  full  light. ' ' 

They  looked  amazed,  but  they  followed  me  as  I 
made  a  dash  for  the  drawing-room,  Miss  Thank- 
264 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

ful  with  the  tureen  in  her  hands.  I  was  quite  mis 
tress  of  myself  before  I  faced  them  again,  and, 
sitting  down,  took  the  tureen  on  my  lap,  greatly 
to  Miss  Charity's  concern  as  to  the  injury  it  might 
do  my  frock. 

"There  is  something  I  must  tell  you  about  my 
self  before  I  can  accept  your  gift,"  I  said. 

"What  can  you  have  to  tell  us  about  yourself 
that  could  make  us  hesitate  to  bestow  upon  you 
such  an  insignificant  piece  of  old  cracked  china?" 
Miss  Thankful  asked  as  I  sat  looking  up  at  them 
with  moist  eyes  and  wildly  beating  heart. 

"Only  this,"  I  answered.  "I  know  what  per 
haps  you  had  rather  have  had  me  ignorant  of. 
Mrs.  Packard  told  me  about  the  bonds  you  lost, 
and  how  you  thought  them  still  in  the  house 
where  your  brother  died,  though  no  one  has  ever 
been  able  to  find  them  there.  Oh,  sit  down,"  I  en 
treated,  as  they  both  turned  very  pale  and  looked 
at  each  other  in  affright.  "I  don't  wonder  that 
you  have  felt  their  loss  keenly ;  I  don't  wonder  that 
you  have  done  your  utmost  to  recover  them,  but 

265 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

what  I  do  wonder  at  is  that  you  were  so  sure 
they  were  concealed  in  the  room  where  he  lay  that 
you  never  thought  of  looking  elsewhere.  Do  you 
remember,  Miss  Quinlan,  where  his  eyes  were  fixed 
at  the  moment  of  death?" 

"On  the  window  directly  facing  his  bed." 
"Gazing  at  what?" 
"Sky — no,  the  walls  of  our  house." 
"Be  more  definite;  at  the  old  side  door  through 
which  he  could  see  the   closet  shelves  where  this 
old  tureen  stood.     During  the  time  you  had  been 
gone,  he  had  realized  his  sinking  condition,  and, 
afraid  of  the  nurse  he  saw  advancing  down  the 
street,  summoned  all  his  strength  and  rushed  with 
his  treasure  across  the  alley-way  and  put  it  in  the 
first  hiding-place  his  poor  old  eyes  fell  on.     He 
may  have  been  going  to  give  it  to  you;  but  you 
had  company,  you  remember,  in  here,  and  he  may 
have  heard  voices.     Anyhow,  we  know  that  he  put 
it  in  the  tureen  because — "  here  I  lifted  the  lid — • 
"because — "     I  was  almost  as  excited  and  trem 
bling  and  beside  myself  as  they  were —  "because 
it  is  here  now." 

266 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

They  looked,  then  gazed  in  each  other's  face 
and  bowed  their  heads.  Silence  alone  could  ex 
press  the  emotion  of  that  moment.  Then  with  a 
burst  of  inarticulate  cries,  Miss  Charity  rose  and 
solemnly  began  dancing  up  and  down  the  great 
room.  Her  sister  looked  on  with  grave  disapproval 
till  the  actual  nature  of  the  find  made  its  way  into 
her  bewildered  mind,  then  she  reached  over  and 
plunged  her  hand  into  the  tureen  and  drew  out 
the  five  bonds  which  she  clutched  first  to  her  breast 
and  then  began  proudly  to  unfold. 

"Fifty  thousand  dollars !"  she  exclaimed.  "We 
are  rich  women  from  to-day,"  and  as  she  said  it  I 
saw  the  shrewdness  creep  back  into  her  eyes  and 
the  long  powerful  features  take  on  the  expressive 
character  which  they  had  so  pitifully  lacked  up 
to  the  moment.  I  realized  that  I  had  been  the 
witness  of  a  miracle.  The  reason,  shattered,  or,  let 
us  say,  disturbed  by  one  shock,  had  been  restored 
by  another.  The  real  Miss  Thankful  stood  be 
fore  me. 

Meanwhile  the  weaker  sister,  dancing  still,  was 

267 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

uttering  jubilant  murmurs  to  which  her  feet  kept 
time  with  almost  startling  precision.  But  as  the 
other  let  the  words  I  have  recorded  here  leave  her 
lips,  she  came  to  a  sudden  standstill  and  approach 
ing  her  lips  to  Miss  Thankful's  ear  said  joyfully: 

"We  must  tell — oh,"  she  hastily  interpolated  as 
she  caught  her  sister's  eyes  and  followed  the  di 
rection  of  her  pointing  finger,  "we  have  not 
thanked  our  little  friend,  our  good  little  friend 
who  has  done  us  such  an  inestimable  service."  I 
felt  her  quivering  arms  fall  round  my  neck,  as 
Miss  Thankful  removed  the  tureen  and  in  words 
both  reasonable  and  kind  expressed  the  unbounded 
gratitude  which  she  herself  felt. 

"How  came  you  to  think?  How  came  you  to 
care  enough  to  think?"  fell  from  her  lips  as  she 
kissed  me  on  the  forehead.  "You  are  a  jewel,  lit 
tle  Miss  Saunders,  and  some  day — " 

But  I  need  not  relate  all  that  she  said  or  all  the 

extravagant  things  Miss  Charity  did,  or  even  my 

own  delight,  so  much  greater  even  than  any  I  had 

anticipated,  when  I  first  saw  this  possible  ending 

268 


THE  TWO  WEIRD  SISTERS 

of  my  suddenly  inspired  idea.  However,  Miss 
Thankf ul's  words  as  we  parted  at  the  door  struck 
me  as  strange,  showing  that  it  would  be  a  little 
while  yet  before  the  full  balance  of  her  mind  was 
restored. 

"Tell  everybody,"  she  cried ;  "tell  Mrs.  Packard 
and  all  who  live  in  the  house;  but  keep  it  secret 
from  the  woman  who  keeps  that  little  shop.  We 
are  afraid  of  her;  she  haunts  this  neighborhood 
to  get  at  these  very  bonds.  She  was  the  nurse  who 
cared  for  my  brother,  and  it  was  to  escape  her 
greed  that  he  hid  this  money.  If  she  knew  that 
we  had  found  these  our  lives  wouldn't  be  safe. 
Wait  till  we  have  them  in  the  bank." 

"Assuredly.     I  shall  tell  no  one." 

"But  you  must  tell  those  at  home,"  she  smiled; 
and  the  beaming  light  in  her  kindled  eye  followed 
me  the  few  steps  I  had  to  take,  and  even  into 
the  door. 

So  Bess  had  been  the  old  man's  nurse! 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   MORNING   NEWS 

That  evening  I  was  made  a  heroine  of  by  Mrs. 
Packard  and  all  the  other  members  of  the  house 
hold.  Even  Nixon  thawed  and  showed  me  his 
genial  side.  I  had  to  repeat  my  story  above  stairs 
and  below,  and  relate  just  what  the  old  ladies  had 
done  and  said,  and  how  they  bore  their  joy,  and 
whatever  I  thought  they  would  do  with  their  money 
now  they  had  it.  When  I  at  last  reached  my 
room,  my  first  act  was  to  pull  aside  my  shade  and 
take  a  peep  at  the  old  attic  window.  Miss  Char 
ity's  face  was  there,  but  so  smiling  and  gay  I 
hardly  knew  it.  She  kissed  her  hand  to  me  as  I 
nodded  my  head,  and  then  turned  away  with  her 
light  as  if  to  show  me  she  had  only  been  waiting  to 
give  me  this  joyous  good  night. 

This  was  a  much  better  picture  to  sleep  on  than 
the  former  one  had  been. 
270 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

Next  day  I  settled  back  into  my  old  groove. 
Mrs.  Packard  busied  herself  with  her  embroidery 
and  I  read  to  her  or  played  on  the  piano.  Hap 
pier  days  seemed  approaching,  nay,  had  come.  We 
enjoyed  two  days  of  it,  then  trouble  settled  down 
on  us  once  more. 

It  began  on  Friday  afternoon.  Mrs.  Packard 
and  I  had  been  out  making  some  arrangements 
for  the  projected  dinner-party  and  I  had  stopped 
for  a  minute  in  the  library  before  going  up-stairs. 

A  pile  of  mail  lay  on  the  table.  Running  this 
over  with  a  rapid  hand,  she  singled  out  several  let 
ters  which  she  began  to  open.  Their  contents 
seemed  far  from  satisfactory.  Exclamation  after 
exclamation  left  her  lips,  her  agitation  increasing 
with  each  one  she  read,  and  her  haste,  too,  till 
finally  it  seemed  sufficient  for  her  just  to  glance 
at  the  unfolded  sheet  before  letting  it  drop.  When 
the  last  one  had  left  her  hand,  she  turned  and,  en 
countering  my  anxious  look,  bitterly  remarked: 

"We  need  not  have  made  those  arrangements 
this  morning.  Seven  regrets  in  this  mail  and  two 
271 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

in  the  early  one.  Nine  regrets  in  all!  and  I  sent 
out  only  ten  invitations.  What  is  the  meaning  of 
it?  I  begin  to  feel  myself  ostracized." 

I  did  not  understand  it  any  more  than  she  did. 
"Invite  others,"  I  suggested,  and  was  sorry  for 
my  presumption  the  next  minute. 
Her  poor  lip  trembled. 

"I  do  not  dare,"  she  whispered.  "Oh,  what  will 
Mr.  Packard  say !  Some  one  or  something  is  work 
ing  against  us.  We  have  enemies — enemies,  and 
Mr.  Packard  will  never  get  his  election." 

Her  trouble  was  natural  and  so  was  her  ex 
pression  of  it.  Feeling  for  her,  and  all  the  more 
that  the  cause  of  this  concerted  action  against  her 
was  as  much  a  mystery  to  me  as  it  was  to  herself,  I 
made  some  attempt  to  comfort  her,  which  was  futile 
enough,  God  knows.  She  heard  my  voice,  no 
doubt,  but  she  gave  no  evidence  of  noting  what 
I  said.  When  I  had  finished — that  is,  when  she  no 
longer  heard  me  speaking — she  let  her  head  droop 
and  presently  I  heard  her  murmur : 

"It  seems  to  me  that  if  for  any  reason  he  fails 
to  get  his  election  I  shall  wish  to  die." 
272 


Mrs.  Packard's  eyes  opened  wide  with  horror.      Page  273 


•          -':..: 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

She  was  in  this  state  of  dejection,  with  the  echo 
of  this  sad  sentence  in  both  our  ears,  when  a  light 
tap  at  the  door  was  followed  by  the  entrance  of 
Letty,  the  nurse-maid.  She  wore  an  unusual  look  of 
embarrassment  and  held  something  crushed  in  her 
hand.  Mrs.  Packard  advanced  hurriedly  to  meet 
her. 

"What  is  it?"  she  interrogated  sharply,  like  one 
expectant  of  evil  tidings. 

"Nothing!  that  is,  not  much,"  stammered  the 
frightened  girl,  attempting  to  thrust  her  hand  be 
hind  her  back. 

But  Mrs.  Packard  was  too  quick  for  her. 

"You  have  something  there!  What  is  it?  Let 
me  see." 

The  girl's  hand  moved  forward  reluctantly.  "A 
paper  which  I  found  pinned  to  the  baby's  coat 
when  I  took  her  out  of  the  carriage,"  she  faltered. 
"I — I  don't  know  what  it  means." 

Mrs.  Packard's  eyes  opened  wide  with  horror. 
She  seized  the  paper  and  staggered  with  it  to  one 
of  the  windows.  While  she  looked  at  it,  I  cast  a 
273 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

glance  at  Letty.  She  was  crying,  from  what 
looked  like  pure  fear;  but  it  was  the  fear  of  ig 
norance  rather  than  duplicity;  she  appeared  as 
much  mystified  as  ourselves. 

Meanwhile  I  felt,  rather  than  saw,  the  old 
shadow  settling  fast  upon  the  head  of  her  who  an 
hour  before  had  been  so  bright.  She  had  chosen 
a  place  where  her  form  could  not  fail  of  being 
more  or  less  concealed  by  the  curtain,  and  though 
I  heard  the  paper  rattle  I  could  not  see  it  or  the 
hand  which  held  it.  But  the  time  she  spent  over  it 
seemed  interminable  before  I  heard  her  utter  a 
sharp  cry  and  saw  the  curtains  shake  as  she 
clutched  them. 

It  seemed  the  proper  moment  to  proffer  help, 
but  before  either  Letty  or  I  could  start  for 
ward,  her  command  rang  out  in  smothered  but 
peremptory  tones: 

"Keep   back!     I   want   no   one   here!"   and   we 

stopped,  each  looking  at  the  other  in  very  natural 

consternation.    And  when,  after  another  seemingly 

interminable  interval,  she  finally  stepped  forth,  I 

274 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

noted  a  haggard  change  in  her  face,  and  that  her 
coat  had  been  torn  open  and  even  the  front  of  her 
dress  wrenched  apart  as  if  she  felt  herself  suffo 
cating,  or  as  if — but  this  alternative  only  sug 
gested  itself  to  me  later  and  I  shall  refrain  from 
mentioning  it  now. 

Crossing  the  floor  with  a  stumbling  step,  with 
the  paper  which  had  roused  all  this  indignation 
still  in  her  hand,  she  paused  before  the  now  seri 
ously  alarmed  Letty,  and  demanded  in  great  ex 
citement  : 

"Who  pinned  that  paper  on  my  child?  You 
know ;  you  saw  it  done.  Was  it  a  man  or  — " 

"Oh  no,  ma'am,  no,  ma'am,"  protested  the  girl. 
"No  man  came  near  her.  It  was  a  woman— a  nice- 
looking  woman." 

"A  woman!" 

Mrs.  Packard's  tone  was  incredulous.  But  the 
girl  insisted. 

"Yes,  ma'am;  there  was  no  man  there  at  all.  I 
was  on  one  of  the  park  benches  resting,  with  the 
baby  in  my  arms,  and  this  woman  passed  by  and 
275 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

saw  us.  She  smiled  at  the  baby's  ways,  and  then 
stopped  and  took  to  talking  about  her, — how 
pretty  she  was  and  how  little  afraid  of  strangers. 
I  saw  no  harm  in  the  woman,  ma'am,  and  let  her 
sit  down  on  the  same  bench  with  me  for  a  few  min 
utes.  She  must  have  pinned  the  paper  on  the 
baby's  coat  then,  for  it  was  the  only  time  anybody 
was  near  enough  to  do  it." 

Mrs.  Packard,  with  an  irrepressible  gesture  of 
anger  or  dismay,  turned  and  walked  back  to  the 
window.  The  movement  was  a  natural  one.  Cer 
tainly  she  was  excusable  for  wishing  to  hide  from 
the  girl  the  full  extent  of  the  agitation  into  which 
this  misadventure  had  thrown  her. 

"You  may  go."  The  words  came  after  a  mo 
ment  of  silent  suspense.  "Give  the  baby  her  sup 
per — I  know  that  you  will  never  let  any  one  else 
come  so  near  her  again." 

Letty  probably  did  not  catch  the  secret  an 
guish  hidden  in  her  tone,  but  I  did,  and  after  the 
nurse-maid  was  gone,  I  waited  anxiously  for  what 
Mrs.  Packard  would  say. 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

It  came  from  the  window  and  conveyed  noth 
ing.  Would  I  do  so  and  so?  I  forget  what  her 
requests  were,  only  that  they  necessitated  my  leav 
ing  the  room.  There  seemed  no  alternative  but 
to  obey,  yet  I  felt  loath  to  leave  her  and  was  hes 
itating  near  the  doorway  when  a  new  interruption 
occurred.  Nixon  brought  in  a  telegram,  and,  as 
Mrs.  Packard  advanced  to  take  it,  she  threw  on 
the  table  the  slip  of  paper  which  she  had  been 
poring  over  behind  the  curtains. 

As  I  stepped  back  at  Nixon's  entrance  I  was 
near  the  table  and  the  single  glance  I  gave  this 
paper  as  it  fell  showed  me  that  it  was  covered 
with  the  same  Hebrew-like  characters  of  which  I 
already  possessed  more  than  one  example. 

The  surprise  was  acute,  but  the  opportunity 
which  came  with  it  was  one  I  could  not  let  slip. 
Meeting  her  eye  as  the  door  closed  on  Nixon,  I 
pointed  at  the  scrawl  she  had  thrown  down,  and 
wonderingly  asked  her  if  that  was  what  Letty  had 
found  pinned  to  the  baby's  coat. 

With  a  surprised  start,  she  paused  in  her  act  of 
277 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

opening  the  telegram  and  made  a  motion  as  if  to 
repossess  herself  of  this,  but  seeming  to  think  bet 
ter  of  it  she  confined  herself  to  giving  me  a  sharp 
look. 

"Yes,"  was  her  curt  assent. 

I  summoned  up  all  my  courage,  possibly  all  my 
powers  of  acting. 

"Why,  what  is  there  in  unreadable  characters 
like  these  to  alarm  you?" 

She  forgot  her  telegram,  she  forgot  everything 
but  that  here  was  a  question  she  must  answer  in 
a  way  to  disarm  all  suspicion. 

"The  fact,"  she  accentuated  gravely,  "that  they 
are  unreadable.  What  menace  may  they  not  con 
tain?  I  am  afraid  of  them,  as  I  am  of  all  obscure 
and  mystifying  things." 

In  a  flash,  at  the  utterance  of  these  words,  I  saw 
my  way  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  wish  which  had 
actuated  me  from  the  instant  my  eyes  had  fallen 
on  this  paper. 

"Do  you  think  it  a  cipher?"  I  asked. 

"A  cipher?" 

"I  have  always  been  good  at  puzzles.     I  wish 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

you  would  let  me  see  what  I  can  make  out  of  these 
rows  of  broken  squares  and  topsy-turvy  angles. 
Perhaps  I  can  prove  to  you  that  they  contain  noth 
ing  to  alarm  you." 

The  gleam  of  something  almost  ferocious 
sprang  into  this  gentle  woman's  eyes.  Her  lips 
moved  and  I  expected  an  angry  denial,  but  fear 
kept  her  back.  She  did  not  dare  to  appear  to 
understand  this  paper  any  better  than  I  did.  Be 
sides,  she  was  doubtless  conscious  that  its  secret 
was  not  one  to  yield  to  any  mere  puzzle-reader. 
She  could  safely  trust  it  to  my  curiosity.  All  this 
I  detected  in  her  changing  expression,  before  she 
made  the  slightest  gesture  which  allowed  me  to 
secure  what  I  felt  to  be  the  most  valuable  acqui 
sition  in  the  present  exigency. 

Then  she  turned  to  her  telegram.  It  was  from 
her  husband,  and  I  was  not  prepared  for  the  cry 
of  dismay  which  left  her  lips  as  she  read  it,  nor 
for  the  increased  excitement  into  which  she  was 
thrown  by  its  few  and  seemingly  simple  words. 

With  apparent  forgetfulness  of  what  had  just 
279 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

occurred — a  forgetfulness  which  insensibly  car 
ried  her  back  to  the  moment  when  she  had  given 
me  some  order  which  involved  my  departure  from 
the  room — she  impetuously  called  out  over  her 
shoulder  which  she  had  turned  on  opening  her 
telegram : 

"Miss  Saunders!  Miss  Saunders!  are  you  there? 
Bring  me  the  morning  papers ;  bring  me  the  morn 
ing  papers!" 

Instantly  I  remembered  that  we  had  not  read 
the  papers.  Contrary  to  our  usual  habit  we  had 
gone  about  a  pressing  piece  of  work  without  a 
glance  at  any  of  the  three  dailies  laid  to  hand  in 
their  usual  place  on  the  library  table. 

"They  are  here  on  the  table,"  I  replied,  won 
dering  as  much  at  the  hectic  flush  which  now  en 
livened  her  features  as  at  the  extreme  paleness  that 
had  marked  them  the  moment  before. 

"Search  them !  There  is  something  new  in  them 
about  me.  There  must  be.  Read  Mr.  Packard's 
message." 

I  took  it  from  her  hand ;  only  eight  words  in  all. 
280 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

Here   they    are — the   marks   of   separation   being 
mine: 

I  am  coming — libel  I  know — where  is  S. 

Henry. 

"Search  the  columns,"  she  repeated,  as  I  laid 
the  telegram  down.  "Search!  Search!" 

I  hastily  obeyed.  But  it  took  me  some  time  to 
find  the  paragraph  I  sought.  The  certainty  that 
others  in  the  house  had  read  these  papers,  if  we 
had  not,  disturbed  me.  I  recalled  certain  glances 
which  I  had  seen  pass  between  the  servants  behind 
Mrs.  Packard's  back, — glances  which  I  had  barely 
noted  at  the  time,  but  which  returned  to  my  mind 
now  with  forceful  meaning;  and  if  these  busy 
girls  had  read,  all  the  town  had  read — what?  Sud 
denly  I  found  it.  She  saw  my  eyes  stop  in  their 
hurried  scanning  and  my  fingers  clutch  the  sheet 
more  firmly,  and,  drawing  up  behind  me,  she  at 
tempted  to  follow  with  her  eyes  the  words  I  re 
luctantly  read  out.  Here  they  are,  just  as  they 
left  my  trembling  lips  that  day — words  that  only 
the  most  rabid  of  opponents  could  have  instigated : 
281 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Apropos  of  the  late  disgraceful  discoveries,  by  which 
a  woman  of  apparent  means  and  unsullied  honor  has 
been  precipitated  from  her  proud  preeminence  as  a 
leader  of  fashion,  how  many  women,  known  and  ad 
mired  to-day,  could  stand  the  test  of  such  an  inquiry 
as  she  was  subjected  to?  We  know  one  at  least,  high 
in  position  and  aiming  at  a  higher,  who,  if  the  merciful 
veil  were  withdrawn  which  protects  the  secrets  of  the 
heart,  would  show  such  a  dark  spot  in  her  life,  that 
even  the  aegis  of  the  greatest  power  in  the  state  would 
be  powerless  to  shield  her  from  the  indignation  of  those 
who  now  speak  loudest  in  her  praise. 

"A  lie!"  burst  in  vehement  protest  from  Mrs. 
Packard,  as  I  finished.  "A  lie  like  the  rest!  But 
oh,  the  shame  of  it!  a  shame  that  will  kill  me." 
Then  suddenly  and  with  a  kind  of  cold  horror:  "It 
is  this  which  has  destroyed  my  social  prestige  in 
town.  I  understand  those  nine  declinations  now. 
Henry  !  my  poor  Henry !" 

There  was  little  comfort  to  offer,  but  I  tried 
to  divert  her  mind  to  the  practical  aspect  of  the 
case  by  saying: 

"What  can  Mr.  Steele  be  doing?  He  does  not 
seem  to  be  very  successful  in  his  attempts  to  carry 
out  the  mayor's  orders.  See !  your  husband  asks 
282 


THE  MORNING  NEWS 

where  he  is.  He  can  mean  no  other  by  the  words 
'Where  is  S — ?'  He  knew  that  your  mind  would 
supply  the  name." 

"Yes." 

Her  eyes  had  become  fixed;  her  whole  face  be 
trayed  a  settled  despair.  Quickly,  violently,  she 
rang  the  bell. 

Nixon  appeared. 

She  advanced  hurriedly  to  meet  him. 

"Nixon,  you  have  Mr.  Steele's  address  ?" 

"Yes,  Mrs.  Packard." 

"Then  go  to  it  at  once.  Find  Mr.  Steele  if  you 
can,  but  if  that  is  not  possible,  learn  where  he  has 
gone  and  come  right  back  and  tell  me.  Mr.  Pack 
ard  telegraphs  to  know  where  he  is.  He  has  not 
joined  the  mayor  in  C ." 

"Yes,  Mrs.  Packard;  the  house  is  not  far.  I 
shall  be  back  in  fifteen  minutes." 

The  words  were  respectful,  but  the  sly  glint  in 
his  blinking  eyes  as  he  hastened  out  fixed  my 
thoughts  again  on  this  man  and  the  uncommon 
attitude  he  maintained  toward  the  mistress  whose 
behests  he  nevertheless  flew  to  obey. 
283 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   CRY  FROM   THE   STAIRS 

I  was  alone  in  the  library  when  Nixon  returned. 
He  must  have  seen  Mrs.  Packard  go  up  before  he 
left,  for  he  passed  by  without  stopping,  and  the 
next  moment  I  heard  his  foot  on  the  stairs. 

Some  impulse  made  me  step  into  the  hall  and 
cast  a  glance  at  his  ascending  figure.  I  could  see 
only  his  back,  but  there  was  something  which  I 
did  not  like  in  the  curve  of  that  back  and  the  slide 
of  his  hand  as  it  moved  along  the  stair-rail. 

His  was  not  an  open  nature  at  the  best.  I  al 
most  forgot  the  importance  of  his  errand  in  watch 
ing  the  man  himself.  Had  he  not  been  a  servant 
— but  he  was,  and  an  old  and  foolishly  fussy  one. 
I  would  not  imagine  follies,  only  I  wished  I  could 
follow  him  into  Mrs.  Packard's  presence. 

His  stay,  however,  was  too  short  for  much"  to 
have  been  gained  thereby.  Almost  immediately  he 
284 


THE  CRY  FROM  THE  STAIRS 

reappeared,  shaking  his  head  and  looking  very 
much  disturbed,  and  I  was  watching  his  pottering 
descent  when  he  was  startled,  and  I  was  startled, 
by  two  cries  which  rang  out  simultaneously  from 
above,  one  of  pain  and  distress  from  the  room  he 
had  just  left,  and  one  expressive  of  the  utmost 
glee  from  the  lips  of  the  baby  whom  the  nurse 
maid  was  bringing  down  from  the  upper  hall. 

Appalled  by  the  anguish  expressed  in  the  moth 
er's  cry,  I  was  bounding  up-stairs  when  my  course 
was  stopped  by  one  of  the  most  poignant  sights 
it  has  ever  been  my  lot  to  witness.  Mrs.  Packard 
had  heard  her  child's  laugh,  and  flying  from  her 
room  had  met  the  little  one  on  the  threshold  of 
her  door  and  now,  crying  and  sobbing,  was  kneel 
ing  with  the  child  in  her  arms  in  the  open  space 
at  the  top  of  the  stairs.  Her  paroxysm  of  grief, 
wild  and  unconstrained  as  it  was,  gave  less  hint 
of  madness  than  of  intolerable  suffering. 

Wondering  at  an  abandonment  which  bespoke 
a  grief  too  great  for  all  further  concealment,  I 
glanced  again  at  Nixon.  He  had  paused  in  the  mid- 

285 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

die  of  the  staircase  and  was  looking  back  in  a  du 
bious  way  denoting  hesitation.  But  as  the  full  force 
of  the  tragic  scene  above  made  itself  felt  in  his 
slow  mind,  he  showed  a  disposition  to  escape  and 
tremblingly  continued  his  descent.  He  was  nearly 
upon  me  when  he  caught  my  eye.  A  glare  awoke 
in  his,  and  seeing  his  right  arm  rise  threateningly, 
I  thought  he  would  certainly  strike  me.  But  he 
slid  by  without  doing  so. 

What  did  it  mean?     Oh,  what  did  it  all  mean? 


286 


CHAPTER  XX 

EXPLANATION 

Determined  to  know  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Pack 
ard's  anguish,  if  not  of  Nixon's  unprovoked  anger 
against  myself,  I  caught  him  back  as  he  was  pass 
ing  me  and  peremptorily  demanded: 

"What  message  did  you  carry  to  Mrs.  Pack 
ard  to  throw  her  into  such  a  state  as  this?  An 
swer  !  I  am  in  this  house  to  protect  her  against 
all  such  disturbances.  What  did  you  tell  her?" 

"Nothing." 

Sullenness  itself  in  the  tone. 

"Nothing?  and  you  were  gent  on  an  errand? 
Didn't  you  fulfil  it?" 

"Yes." 

"And  didn't  tell  her  what  you  learned?" 

"No." 

"Why?" 

"She  didn't  give  me  the  chance." 

287 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Oh !" 

"I  know  it  sounds  queer,  Miss,  but  it's  true. 
She  didn't  give  me  a  chance  to  talk." 

He  muttered  the  final  sentence.  Indeed,  all  that 
we  had  said  until  now  had  been  in  a  subdued 
tone,  but  now  my  voice  unconsciously  rose. 

"You  found  Mr.  Steele?" 

"No,  Miss,  he  was  not  at  home." 

"But  they  told  you  where  to  look  for  him?" 

"No.  His  landlady  thinks  he  is  dead.  He  has 
queer  spells,  and  some  one  had  sent  her  word  about 
a  man,  handsome  like  him,  who  was  found  dead 
at  Hudson  Three  Corners  last  night.  Mr.  Steele 
told  her  he  was  going  over  to  Hudson  Three  Cor 
ners.  She  has  sent  to  see  if  the  dead  man  is  he." 

"The  dead  man!" 

Who  spoke?  Not  Mrs.  Packard!  Surely  that 
voice  was  another's.  Yet  we  both  looked  up  to  see. 
The  sight  which  met  our  eyes  was  astonishing, 
appalling.  She  had  let  her  baby  slip  to  the  floor 
and  had  advanced  to  the  stairs,  where  she  stood, 
clutching  at  the  rail,  looking  down  upon  us,  with 
288 


EXPLANATION 

a  joy  in  her  face  matching  the  unholy  elation  we 
could  still  hear  ringing  in  that  word  "dead." 

Such  a  look  might  have  leaped  to  life  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Medusa  when  she  turned  her  beauty 
upon  her  foredoomed  victims. 

"Dead!"  came  again  in  ringing  repetition  from 
Mrs.  Packard's  lips,  every  fiber  in  her  tense  form 
quivering  and  the  gleam  of  hope  shining  brighter 
and  brighter  in  her  countenance.  "No,  not  dead !" 
Then  while  Nixon  trembled  and  succumbed  in 
wardly  to  this  spectacle  of  a  gentle-hearted  wom 
an  transformed  by  some  secret  and  overwhelming 
emotion  into  an  image  of  vindictive  delight,  her 
hands  left  the  stair-rail  and  flew  straight  up  over 
her  head  in  the  transcendent  gesture  which  only 
the  greatest  crises  in  life  call  forth,  and  she  ex 
claimed  with  awe-inspiring  emphasis:  "God  could 
not  have  been  so  merciful !" 

It  is  not  often,  perhaps  it  is  only  once  in  a  life 
time,  that  it  is  given  us  to  look  straight  into  the 
innermost  recesses  of  the  human  soul.  Never  be 
fore  had  such  an  opportunity  come  to  me,  and 

289 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

possibly  never  would  it  come  again,  yet  my  first 
conscious  impulse  was  one  of  fright  at  the  appal 
ling  self -revelation  she  had  made,  not  only  in  my 
hearing,  but  in  that  of  nearly  her  whole  household. 
I  could  see,  over  her  shoulders,  Letty's  eyes  star 
ing  wide  in  ingenuous  dismay,  while  from  the  hall 
below  rose  the  sound  of  hurrying  feet  as  the  girls 
came  running  in  from  the  kitchen.  Something 
must  be  done,  and  immediately,  to  recall  her  to 
herself,  and,  if  possible,  to  reinstate  her  in  the  eyes 
of  her  servants. 

Bounding  upward  to  where  she  still  stood  for 
getful  and  self-absorbed,  I  laid  my  hands  softly 
but  firmly  on  hers,  which  had  fallen  back  upon 
the  rail,  and  quietly  said: 

"You  have  some  very  strong  reason,  I  see,  for 
looking  upon  Mr.  Steele  as  your  husband's  enemy 
rather  than  friend." 

The  appeal  was  timely.     With  a  start  she  woke 
to  the  realization  of  her  position  and  of  the  sug 
gestive  words   she  had  just  uttered,  and  with  a 
glance  behind  her  at  Letty  and  another  at  Nixon 
290 


EXPLANATION 

and  the  maids,  who  by  this  time  had  pushed  their 
way  to  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  she  gathered  herself 
up  with  a  determination  born  of  the  necessity  of 
the  moment  and  emphatically  replied: 

"No ;  I  do  not  know  Mr.  Steele  well  enough  for 
that.  My  emotion  at  the  unexpected  tidings  of 
his  possible  death  springs  from  another  cause." 
Here  the  help,  the  explanation  for  which  she  had 
been  searching,  came. 

"Girls,"  she  went  on,  addressing  them  with  an 

emphasis  which  drew  all  eyes,  "I  am  ashamed  to 

tell  you  what  has  so  deeply  disturbed  me  these  last 

few  days.      I  should  blame  any  one  of  you  for 

being  affected  as  I  was.     The  great  love  I  bear 

my  husband  and  child  is  my  excuse — a  poor  one,  I 

know,  but  one  you  will  understand.     A  week  ago 

something  happened  to  me  in  the  library  which 

frightened  me  very  much.     I  saw — or  thought  I 

saw — what    some    would    call    an    apparition,    but 

what  you  would  call  a  ghost.    Don't  shriek  !"    (The 

two  girls  behind  me  had  begun  to  scream  and  make 

as  if  to  run  away.)     "It  was  all  imagination,  of 

291 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

course — there  can  not  really  be  any  such  thing. 
Ghosts  in  these  days  ?  Pshaw !  But  I  was  very 
nervous  that  night  and  could  not  help  feeling  that 
the  mere  fact  of  my  thinking  of  anything  so 
dreadful  meant  misfortune  to  some  one  in  this 
house.  Wait !"  Her  voice  was  imperious,  and  the 
shivering,  terrified  girls,  superstitious  to  the  back 
bone,  stopped  in  spite  of  themselves.  "You  must 
hear  it  all,  and  you,  too,  Miss  Saunders,  who  have 
only  heard  half.  I  was  badly  frightened  then,  es 
pecially  as  the  ghost,  spirit-man,  or  whatever  it 
was,  wore  a  look,  in  the  one  short  moment  I  stood 
face  to  face  with  it,  full  of  threat  and  warning. 
Next  day  Mr.  Packard  introduced  his  new  secre 
tary.  Girls,  he  had  the  face  of  the  Something  I 
had  seen,  without  the  threatening  look,  which  had 
so  alarmed  me." 

"Bad  'cess  to  him!"  rang  in  vigorous  denun 
ciation  from  the  cook.  "Why  didn't  ye  send  him 
'mejitly  about  his  business?  It's  trouble  he'll 
bring  to  us  all  and  no  mistake !" 

"That  was   what  I   feared,"   assented  her  now 
292 


EXPLANATION 

thoroughly  composed  mistress.  "So  when  Nixon 
said  just  now  that  Mr.  Steele  was  dead,  had  fallen 
in  a  fit  at  Hudson  Three  Corners  or  something  like 
that — I  felt  such  wicked  relief  at  finding  that  my 
experience  had  not  meant  danger  to  ourselves, 
but  to  him — wicked,  because  it  was  so  selfish — that 
I  forgot  myself  and  cried  out  in  the  way  you  all 
heard.  Blame  me  if  you  will,  but  don't  frighten 
yourselves  by  talking  about  it.  If  Mr.  Steele  is 
indeed  dead,  we  have  enough  to  trouble  us  without 
that." 

And  with  a  last  glance  at  me,  which  ended 
in  a  wavering  half -deprecatory  smile,  she  stepped 
back  and  passed  into  her  own  room. 

The  mood  in  which  I  proceeded  to  my  own  quar 
ters  was  as  thoughtful  as  any  I  had  ever  expe 
rienced. 


293 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   CIPHER 

Hitherto  I  had  mainly  admired  Mrs.  Packard's 
person  and  the  extreme  charm  of  manner  which 
never  deserted  her,  no  matter  how  she  felt.  Now 
I  found  myself  compelled  to  admire  the  force  and 
quality  of  her  mind,  her  readiness  to  meet  emer 
gencies  and  the  tact  with  which  she  had  availed 
herself  of  the  superstition  latent  in  the  Irish  tem 
perament.  For  I  had  no  more  faith  in  the  ex 
planation  she  had  seen  fit  to  give  these  ignorant 
girls  than  I  had  in  the  apparition  itself.  Emo 
tion  such  as  she  had  shown  called  for  a  more  mat 
ter-of-fact  basis  than  the  one  she  had  ascribed  to 
it.  No  unreal  and  purely  superstitious  reason 
would  account  for  the  extreme  joy  and  self-aban 
donment  with  which  she  had  hailed  the  possibil 
ity  of  Mr.  Steele's  death.  The  "no"  she  had  given 
me  when  I  asked  if  she  considered  this  man  her  hus- 
294 


THE  CIPHER 

band's  enemy  had  been  a  lying  no.  To  her,  for 
some  cause  as  yet  unexplained,  the  secretary  was 
a  dangerous  ally  to  the  man  she  loved;  an  ally  so 
near  and  so  dangerous  that  the  mere  rumor  of  his 
death  was  capable  of  lifting  her  from  the  depths 
of  despondency  into  a  state  of  abnormal  exhilara 
tion  and  hope.  Now  why?  What  reason  had  she 
for  this  belief,  and  how  was  it  in  my  power  to 
solve  the  mystery  which  I  felt  to  be  at  the  bot 
tom  of  all  the  rest? 

But  one  means  suggested  itself.  I  was  now  as 
sured  that  Mrs.  Packard  would  never  take  me  into 
her  actual  confidence,  any  more  than  she  had  taken 
her  husband.  What  I  learned  must  be  in  spite  of 
her  precautions.  The  cipher  of  which  I  had  sev 
eral  specimens  might,  if  properly  read,  give  me 
the  clue  I  sought.  I  had  a  free  hour  before  me. 
Why  not  employ  it  in  an  endeavor  to  pick  out 
the  meaning  of  those  odd  Hebraic  characters?  I 
had  in  a  way  received  her  sanction  to  do  so — if  I 
could ;  and  if  I  should  succeed,  what  shadows  might 
it  not  clear  from  the  path  of  the  good  man  whose 
interests  it  was  my  chief  duty  to  consult? 
295 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Ciphers  have  always  possessed  a  fascination  for 
me.  This  one,  from  the  variety  of  its  symbols,  of 
fered  a  study  of  unusual  interest.  Collecting  the 
stray  specimens  which  I  had  picked  up,  I  sat 
down  in  my  cozy  little  room  and  laid  them  all  out 
before  me,  with  the  following  result  : 

/.nva>vu< 


JlDVD>_VU< 
LJ< 

4DVD>VU«L>Al_Va-JAUDV:D 

n>33V<CA.nVD>VU< 
^.>  D  VD  VO^D  >  Fl  J  A  D  £  A  U15F  V 

2  1-  ^  n  >  n  ^  i«  >  <  QJ  u  if  .<  ill  r  u 

DQEUFt_-nA  F  >  C  A  E1<  U  D 
1  Etl>!  U  *1  E  A  L.>  m  E,H  12.-1"2J  r  A 
OUli 

No.  1  :  My  cop}'  of  the  characters,  as  I  remem 
ber  seeing  them  on  the  envelope  which  Mrs.  Pack 
ard  had  offered  to  Mr.  Steele  and  afterward  thrown 
into  the  fire. 

Nos.  2,  3  and  4:    The  discarded  scraps  I  had 
taken  from  the  waste-basket  in  her  room. 
296 


THE  CIPHER 

No.  5:  The  lengthy  communication  in  another 
hand,  which  Mrs.  Packard  had  found  pinned  on 
the  baby's  cloak,  and  at  my  intercession  had 
handed  over  to  me. 

A  goodly  array,  if  the  latter  was  a  specimen 
of  the  same  cipher  as  the  first,  a  fact  which  its 
general  appearance  seemed  to  establish,  notwith 
standing  the  few  added  complexities  observable  in 
it,  and  one  which  a  remembrance  of  her  extreme 
agitation  on  opening  it  would  have  settled  in  my 
mind,  even  if  these  complexities  had  been  greater 
and  the  differences  even  more  pronounced  than 
they  were.  Lines  entirely  unsuggestive  of  mean 
ing  to  her  might  have  aroused  her  wonder  and 
possibly  her  anger,  but  not  her  fear;  and  the 
emotion  which  I  chiefly  observed  in  her  at  that 
moment  had  been  fear. 

So!  out  of  these  one  hundred  and  fifty  charac 
ters,  many  of  them  mere  repetitions,  it  remained 
for  me  to  discover  a  key  whereby  their  meaning 
might  be  rendered  intelligible. 

To  begin,  then,  what  peculiarities  were  first 
observable  in  them? 

297 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Several. 

First:  The  symbols  followed  one  after  the 
other  without  breaks,  whether  the  communication 
was  limited  to  one  word  or  to  many. 

Second :  Nos.  &,  3  and  4  started  with  the  identical 
characters  which  made  up  No.  1. 

Third:  While  certain  lines  in  Nos.  2,  3  and 
4  were  heavier  than  others,  no  such  distinction  was 
observable  in  the  characters  forming  No.  1. 

Fourth:  This  distinction  was  even  more  marked 
in  the  longer  specimen  written  by  another  hand, 
viz.:  No.  5. 

Fifth:  This  distinction,  which  we  will  call  shad 
ing,  occurred  intermittently,  sometimes  in  two  con 
secutive  characters,  but  never  in  three. 

Sixth:  This  shading  was  to  be  seen  now  on  one 
limb  of  the  character  it  apparently  emphasized 
and  now  on  another. 

Seventh:     In  the  three  specimens  of  the  seven 

similar  characters  commencing  Nos.   2,  3  and  4, 

the  exact  part  shaded  was  not  always  the  same — 

as  for  instance,  it  was  the  left  arm  of  the  second 

298 


THE  CIPHER 

character  in  No.  2  which  showed  the  heavy  line, 
while  the  shading  was  on  the  right-hand  arm  of 
the  corresponding  character  in  No.  3. 

Eighth:  These  variations  of  emphasis  in  No. 
4  coincided  sometimes  with  those  seen  in  No.  & 
and  again  with  those  in  No.  3. 

Ninth :  Each  one  of  these  specimens,  saving  the 
first,  ended  in  a  shaded  character. 

Tenth:  While  some  of  the  characters  were 
squares  or  parts  of  a  square,  others  were  in  the 
shape  of  a  V  turned  now  this  way  and  now  that. 

Eleventh:  These  characters  were  varied  by  the 
introduction  of  dots,  and,  in  some  cases,  by  the  in 
sertion  of  minute  sketches  of  animals,  birds,  arrows, 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  etc.,  with  here  and  there  one  of 
a  humorous,  possibly  sarcastic,  nature. 

Twelfth:  Dots  and  dots  only  were  to  be  found 
in  the  specimen  emanating  from  Mrs.  Packard's 
hand;  birds,  arrows,  skipping  boys  and  hanging 
men,  etc.,  being  confined  to  No.  5,  the  product  of 
another  brain  and  hand,  at  present  unknown. 

Now  what  conclusions  could  I  draw  from  these? 
299 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  shall  give  them  to  you  as  they  came  to  me 
that  night.  Others  with  wits  superior  to  my  own 
may  draw  additional  and  more  suggestive  ones: 

First:  Division  into  words  was  not  considered 
necessary  or  was  made  in  some  other  way  than  by 
breaks. 

Second :  The  fact  of  the  shading  being  omitted 
from  No.  1  meant  nothing — that  specimen  being 
my  own  memory  of  lines,  the  shading  or  non-shad 
ing  of  which  would  hardly  have  attracted  my  atten 
tion. 

Third:  The  similarity  observable  in  the  seven 
opening  characters  of  the  first  four  specimens 
being  taken  as  a  proof  of  their  standing  for 
the  same  word  or  phrase,  it  was  safe  to  consider 
this  word  or  phrase  as  a  complete  one  to  which  she 
had  tried  to  fit  others,  and  always  to  her  dissatis 
faction,  till  she  had  finally  rejected  all  but  the 
simple  one  with  which  she  had  started. 

Fourth:     No.  1,  short  as  it  was,  was,  therefore, 
a  communication  in  itself. 
300 


THE  CIPHER 

Fifth :  The  shading  of  a  character  was  in  some 
way  essential  to  its  proper  understanding,  but  not 
the  exact  place  where  that  shading  fell. 

Sixth:  The  dots  were  necessarily  modifications, 
but  not  their  shape  or  nature. 

Seventh:  This  shading  might  indicate  the  end 
of  a  word. 

Eighth:  If  so,  the  shading  of  two  contiguous 
characters  would  show  the  first  one  to  be  a  word  of 
one  letter.  There  are  but  two  words  in  the  English 
language  of  one  letter — a  and  i — and  in  the 
specimens  before  me  but  one  character,  that  of  Q, 
which  shows  shading,  next  to  another  shaded  char 
acter. 

Ninth :     Q  was  therefore  a  or  i. 

A  decided  start. 

All  this,  of  course,  was  simply  preliminary. 

The  real  task  still  lay  before  me.  It  was  to  solve 
the  meaning  of  those  first  seven  characters,  which, 
if  my  theory  were  correct,  was  a  communication  in 
301 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

itself,  and  one  of  such  importance  that,  once  mas 
tered,  it  would  give  the  key  to  the  whole  situation. 

OVD>VD< 
or  with  the  shading: 

oy D> vu< 

You  have  all  read  The  Gold  Bug,  and  know 
something  of  the  method  by  which  a  solution  is 
obtained  by  that  simplest  of  all  ciphers,  where  a 
fixed  character  takes  the  place  of  each  letter  in  the 
alphabet. 

Let  us  see  if  it  applies  to  this  one. 

There  are  twenty-six  letters  in  the  English  al 
phabet.  Are  there  twenty-six  or  nearly  twenty- 
six  different  characters,  in  the  one  hundred  and 
one  I  find  inscribed  on  the  various  slips  spread  out 
before  me? 

No,  there  are  but  fourteen. 
A  check  to  begin  with. 

But  wait ;  the  dots  make  a  difference.  Let  us 
increase  the  list  by  assuming  that  angles  or  squares 
thus  marked  are  different  letters  from  those  of  the 
same  shape  in  which  no  dots  or  sketches  occur,  and 
we  bring  the  list  up  to  twenty.  That  is  better. 
302 


THE  CIPHER 

The  dotted  or  otherwise  marked  squares  or  angles 
are  separate  characters. 

Now,  which  one  of  these  appears  most  frequent 
ly?  The  square,  which  we  have  already  decided 
must  be  either  a  or  i.  In  the  one  short  word  or 
phrase  we  are  at  present  considering,  it  occurs 
twice.  Now  supposing  that  this  square  stands 
for  «,  which  according  to  Poe's  theory  it  should, 
a  coming  before  i  in  the  frequency  in  which  it 
occurs  in  ordinary  English  sentences,  how  would 
the  phrase  look  (still  according  to  Poe)  with 
dashes  taking  the  place  of  the  remaining  un 
known  letters? 

Thus: 

A — a if  the  whole  is  a  single  word. 

A —  a if  the  whole  is  a  phrase.     That 

it  was  a  phrase  I  was  convinced,  possibly  because 
one  clings  to  so  neat  a  theory  as  the  one  which 
makes  the  shading,  so  marked  a  feature  in  all  the 
specimens  before  us,  the  sign  of  division  into  words. 
Let  us  take  these  seven  characters  as  a  phrase  then 
and  not  as  a  word.  What  follows? 
303 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

The  dashes  following  the  two  a's  stand  ?or  let 
ters,  each  of  which  should  make  a  word  when  joined 
to  a.  What  are  these  letters  ?  Run  over  the  alpha 
bet  and  see.  The  only  letters  making  sense  when 
joined  with  a  are  h,  m,  n,  s,  t  or  x.  Discarding 
the  first  and  the  last,  we  have  these  four  words, 
am,  an,  as,  at.  Is  it  possible  to  start  any  intelli 
gible  phrase  with  any  two  of  these  arranged  in  any 
conceivable  way?  No.  Then  Q  can  not  stand 
for  a.  Let  us  see  if  it  does  for  i.  The  words  of 
two  letters  headed  by  I  we  find  to  be  if,  in,  is  and 
it.  A  more  promising  collection  than  the  first. 
One  could  easily  start  a  phrase  with  any  of  these, 
even  with  any  two  of  them  such  as  If  it,  Is  in.  Is  it, 
It  is.  D  is  then  the  symbol  of  i,  and  some  one 
of  the  above  named  combinations  forms  the  begin 
ning  of  the  short  phrase  ending  with  a  word  of 
three  letters  symbolized  by  VLK. 

What  word? 

If  my  reasoning  is  correct  up  to  this  point,  it 
should  not  be  hard  to  determine. 

First,  one  of  these  three  symbols,  the  V,  is  a 
304 


THE  CIPHER 

repetition  of  one  of  those  we  have  already  shown 
to  be  s,  t,  f,  or  n.  Of  the  remaining  two,  U  < » 
one  must  be  a  vowel,  that  is,  it  must  be  either  a, 
e,  o,  u,  or  y;  i  being  already  determined  upon. 
Now  how  many  LPs  and  <'s  do  we  find  in  the  col 
lection  before  us  ?  Ten  or  more  of  the  first,  and  six, 
or  about  six,  of  the  latter.  Recalling  the  table 
made  out  by  Poe — a  table  I  once  learned  as  a  neces 
sary  part  of  my  schooling  as  a  cipher  interpreter — 
I  ran  over  it  thus:  e  is  the  one  letter  most  in  use 
in  English.  Afterward  the  succession  runs  thus: 
a,  o,  i  d,  h,  n,  r,  etc.  There  being  then  ten  LJ's 
to  six  <'s  U  must  be  a  vowel,  and  in  all  prob 
ability  the  vowel  e,  as  no  other  character  in  the 
whole  collection,  save  the  plentiful  squares,  is  re 
peated  so  often. 

I  am  a  patient  woman  usually,  but  I  was  nervous 
that  night,  and,  perhaps,  too  deeply  interested  in 
the  outcome  to  do  myself  justice.  I  could  think 
of  no  word  with  e  for  one  of  its  three  letters  which 
would  make  sense  when  added  on  to  It  is,  Is  it, 
If  it,  Is  in. 

305 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Conscious  of  no  mistake,  yet  always  alive  to  the 
possibility  of  one,  I  dropped  the  isolated  scrap 
I  was  working  upon  and  took  up  the  longer  and 
fuller  ones,  and  with  them  a  fresh  line  of  reason 
ing.  If  my  argument  so  far  had  been  trustworthy, 
I  should  find,  in  these  other  specimens,  a  double 
U  U  standing  for  the  double  e  so  frequently  found 
in  English.  Did  I  find  such?  No.  Another  shock 
to  my  theory. 

Should  I,  then,  give  it  up?  Not  while  another 
means  of  verification  remained.  The  word  the 
should  occur  more  than  once  in  a  collection  of 
words  as  long  as  the  one  before  me.  If  U  is 
really  e,  I  should  find  it  at  the  end  of  the  sup 
posed  thes.  Do  I  so  find  it?  There  are  several 
words  scattered  through  the  whole,  of  only  three 
letters.  Are  any  of  them  terminated  by  U  ? 
Not  one.  My  theory  is  false,  then,  and  I  must  be 
gin  all  over. 

Discarding  every  previous  conclusion  save  this, 
that  the  shading  of  a  line  designated  the  termina 
tion  of  a  word,  I  hunted  first  for  the  thes.  Mak- 
306 


THE  CIPHER 

ing  a  list  of  the  words  containing  only  three  letters, 
I  was  confronted  by  the  following  : 

vu< 

JI3E 


ALV 

<CA 
>F1J 
VIDL 

<ur 

AC"! 


No  two  alike.  Astonishing!  Thirty-two  words 
of  English  and  only  one  the  in  the  whole?  Could 
it  be  that  the  cipher  was  in  a  foreign  language? 
The  preponderance  of  i's  so  out  of  proportion  to 
the  other  vowels  had  already  given  me  this  fear, 
but  the  lack  of  thes  seemed  positively  to  indicate 
it.  Yet  I  must  dig  deeper  before  accepting  defeat. 

Th  is  a  combination  of  letters  which  Poe  says 
occurs  so  often  in  our  language  that  they  can 
easily  be  picked  out  in  a  cipher  of  this  length. 
307 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

How  many  times  can  a  conjunction  of  two  similar 
characters  be  found  in  the  lines  before  us.  >fl 
occurs  three  times,  which  is  often  enough,  per 
haps,  to  establish  the  fact  that  they  stand  for 
th.  Do  I  find  them  joined  with  a  third  character 
in  the  list  of  possible  thes?  Yes.  >F!J,  which 
would  seem  to  fix  both  the  th  and  the  e. 

But  I  have  grown  wary  and  must  make  myself 
sure.  Do  I  find  a  word  in  which  this  combination 
°f  ->FI  occurs  twice,  as  sometimes  happens  with 
the  th  we  are  considering?  No,  but  I  find  two 
other  instances  in  which  like  contiguous  symbols 
ido  appear  twice  in  one  word ;  the  <LJ  in  No.  3 
and  the  V3  in  No.  4> — a  discovery  the  most  em 
barrassing  of  all,  since  in  both  cases  the  symbols 
which  begin  the  word  are  reversed  at  its  end,  as 
witness:  y_3r>~T£JV  —  <L)---LJ<.  For> 
if  V_3  stands  for  th,  and  the  whole  word  showed 
in  letters  th-  -  -ht,  which  to  any  eye  suggests 
the  word  thought,  what  does  <LJ  stand  for,  con 
cerning  which  the  same  conditions  are  observable? 

I  could  not  answer.     I  had  run  on  a  snag. 

Rules  which  applied  to  one  part  of  the  cipher 

308 


THE  CIPHER 

failed  in  another.  Could  it  be  that  a  key  was 
necessary  to  its  proper  solution?  I  began  to  think 
so,  and,  moreover,  that  Mrs.  Packard  had  made 
use  of  some  such  help  as  I  watched  her  puz 
zling  in  the  window  over  these  symbols.  I  recalled 
her  movements,  the  length  of  time  which  elapsed 
before  the  cry  of  miserable  understanding  escaped 
her  lips,  the  fact  that  her  dress  was  torn  apart  at 
the  throat  when  she  came  out,  and  decided  that  she 
had  not  only  drawn  some  paper  from  her  bosom 
helpful  to  the  elucidation  of  these  symbols,  but  that 
this  paper  was  the  one  which  had  been  the  object 
of  her  frantic  search  the  night  I  watched  her 
shadow  on  the  wall. 

So  convinced  was  I  by  these  thoughts  that  any 
further  attempt  to  solve  the  cryptogram  without 
such  aid  as  I  have  mentioned  would  end  by  leaving 
me  where  I  was  at  present, — that  is,  in  the  fog, — 
that  I  allowed  the  lateness  of  the  hour  to  influence 
me;  and,  putting  aside  my  papers,  I  went  to  bed. 

If  I  had  sat  over  them  another  hour,  should  I 
have  been  more  fortunate?  Make  the  attempt 
yourself  and  see. 

309 


CHAPTER  XXII 

MERCY 

"Where  is  my  wife?" 

"Sleeping,  sir,  after  a  day  of  exhausting  emo 
tion." 

"She  didn't  wire  me?" 

"No,  sir." 

"Perhaps  she  wasn't  able?" 

"She  was  not,  Mayor  Packard." 

"I  must  see  her.  I  came  as  soon  as  I  could. 
Left  Warner  to  fill  my  place  on  the  platform,  and 
it  is  the  night  of  nights,  too.  Why,  what's  the 
matter?" 

He  had  caught  me  staring  over  his  shoulder  a*. 
r,  form  drawn  up  in  the  doorway. 

"Nothing ;  I  thought  you  had  come  alone." 

"No,  Mr.  Steele  is  with  me.  He  joined  me  at 
noon,  just  after  I  had  telegraphed  home.  He  has 
come  back  to  finish  the  work  I  assigned  him.  He 
310 


MERCY 

has  at  last  discovered — or  thinks  he  has — the  real 
author  of  those  libels.  You  have  something  special 
to  say  to  me?"  he  whispered,  as  I  followed  him  up 
stairs. 

"Yes,  and  I  think,  if  I  were  you,  that  I  should 
say  nothing  to  Mrs.  Packard  about  Mr.  Steele's 
having  returned."  And  I  rapidly  detailed  the 
occurrence  of  the  afternoon,  ending  with  Mrs. 
Packard's  explanation  to  her  servants. 

The  mayor  showed  impatience. 

"Oh,  I  can  not  bother  with  such  nonsense  as 
that,"  he  declared;  "the  situation  is  too  serious." 

I  thought  so,  too,  when  in  another  moment  his 
wife's  door  opened  and  she  stepped  out  upon  the 
landing  to  meet  him.  Her  eyes  fell  on  Mr.  Stecle, 
standing  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  before  they  en 
countered  her  husband ;  and  though  she  uttered  no 
cry  and  hardly  paused  in  her  approach  toward  the 
mayor,  I  saw  the  heart  within  her  die  as  suddenly 
and  surely  as  the  flame  goes  out  in  a  gust  of  wind. 

"You !"  There  was  hysteria  in  the  cry.  Pray 
God  that  the  wild  note  in  it  was  not  that  of  incip- 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ient  insanity !  "How  good  of  you  to  give  up  mak 
ing  your  great  speech  to-night,  just  to  see  how  I 
have  borne  this  last  outrage!  You  do  see,  don't 
you?"  Here  she  drew  her  form  to  its  full  height. 
"My  husband  believes  in  me,  and  it  gives  me  cour 
age  to  face  the  whole  world.  Ah !  is  that  Mr. 
Steele  I  see  below  there?  Pardon  me,  Mr.  Steele, 
if  I  show  surprise.  We  heard  a  false  report  of 
your  illness  this  afternoon.  Henry,  hadn't  Mr. 
Steele  better  come  up-stairs?  I  presume  you  are 
here  to  talk  over  this  last  dreadful  paragraph  with 
me." 

"It  is  not  necessary  for  Mr.  Steele  to  join  us  if 
you  do  not  wish  him  to,"  I  heard  the  mayor  whisper 
in  his  wife's  ear. 

"Oh,  I  do  not  mind,"  she  returned  with  an  in 
difference  whose  reality  I  probably  gaged  more 
accurately  than  he  did. 

"That  is  good."     And  he  called  Mr.  Steele  up. 

"You  see  she  is  reasonable  enough,"  he  muttered 

in  my  ear  as  he  motioned  me  to  follow  them  into 

the  up-stairs  sitting-room  to  whi'jh  she  had  led  the 

312 


MERCY 

way.  "The  more  heads  the  better  in  a  discussion 
of  this  kind,"  was  the  excuse  he  gave  his  wife  and 
Mr.  Steele  as  he  ushered  me  in. 

As  neither  answered,  I  considered  my  presence 
accepted  and  sat  down  in  as  remote  a  corner  as 
offered.  Verily  the  fates  were  active  in  my  behalf. 

Mayor  Packard  was  about  to  close  the  door, 
when  Mrs.  Packard  suddenly  leaped  by  him  with 
the  cry: 

"There's  the  baby !  She  must  have  heard  your 
voice."  And  rushing  into  the  hall  she  came  back 
with  the  child  whom  she  immediately  placed  in  its 
father's  arms.  Then  she  slowly  seated  herself. 
Not  until  she  had  done  so  did  she  turn  to  Mr. 
Steele. 

"Sit,"  said  she,  with  a  look  and  gesture  her 
husband  would  have  marveled  at  had  he  not  been 
momentarily  occupied  with  the  prattling  child. 

The  secretary  bowed  and  complied.  Surely  men 
of  such  great  personal  attractions  are  few.  In 
stantly  the  light,  shaded  though  it  seemingly  was 
in  all  directions,  settled  on  his  face,  making  him, 
313 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to  my  astonished  gaze,  the  leading  personality  in 
the  group.  Was  this  on  account  of  the  distinction 
inherent  in  extreme  beauty  or  because  of  a  new  and 
dominating  expression  which  had  insensibly  crept 
into  his  features? 

The  mayor,  and  the  mayor  only,  seemed  obliv 
ious  to  the  fact.  Glancing  up  from  the  child,  he 
opened  the  conference  by  saying: 

"Tell  Mrs.  Packard,  Steele,  what  you  have  just 
told  me." 

With  a  quiet  shifting  of  his  figure  which 
brought  him  into  a  better  line  with  the  woman  he 
was  asked  to  address,  the  secretary  opened  his  lips 
to  reply  when  she,  starting,  reached  out  one  hand 
and  drew  toward  herself  the  little  innocent  figure 
of  her  child,  which  she  at  once  placed  between  her 
self  and  him.  Seeing  this,  I  recalled  the  scraps  of 
cipher  left  in  my  room  above  and  wished  I  had 
succeeded  in  determining  their  meaning,  if  only  to 
understand  the  present  enigmatical  situation. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Steele  was  saying  in  the  mellow 
tone  of  a  man  accustomed  to  tune  his  voice  to  suit 
3H 


MERCY 

all  occasions:  "Mrs.  Packard  will  excuse  me  if  I 
seem  abrupt.  In  obedience  to  commands  laid  upon 
me  by  his  Honor,  I  spent  both  Tuesday  and  Wed 
nesday  in  inquiries  as  to  the  origin  of  the  offensive 
paragraph  which  appeared  in  Monday's  issue  of 
the  Leader.  Names  were  given  me,  but  too  many 
of  them.  It  took  me  two  days  to  sift  these  down 
to  one,  and  when  I  had  succeeded  in  doing  this,  it 
was  only  to  find  that  the  man  I  sought  was  ninety 
miles  away.  Madam,  I  journeyed  those  ninety 
miles  to  learn  that  meanwhile  he  had  returned  to 
this  city.  While  I  was  covering  those  miles  for 
the  second  time,  to-day's  paragraph  appeared.  I 
hastened  to  accuse  its  author  of  libel,  but  the  result 
was  hardly  what  I  expected.  Perhaps  you  know 
what  he  said." 

"No,"  she  harshly  returned,  "I  do  not."  And 
with  the  instinctive  gesture  of  one  awaiting  attack 
she  raised  her  now  sleepy  and  nodding  child  in 
front  of  her  laboring  breast,  with  a  look  in  her 
eyes  which  I  see  yet. 

"He  said — pardon  me,  your  Honor,  pardon  me, 
315 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Madam — that  I  was  at  liberty  to  point  out  what 
was  false  in  it." 

With  a  leap  she  was  on  her  feet,  towering  above 
us  all  in  her  indignation  and  overpowering  revolt 
against  the  man  who  was  the  conscious  instrument 
of  this  insult.  The  child,  loosened  so  suddenly 
from  her  arms,  tottered  and  would  have  fallen,  had 
not  Mr.  Steele  leaned  forward  and  drawn  the  lit 
tle  one  across  to  himself.  Mr.  Packard,  who,  we 
must  remember,  had  been  more  or  less  prepared 
for  what  his  secretary  had  to  say,  cast  a  glance  at 
his  wife,  teeming  with  varied  emotions. 

"And  what  did  you  reply  to  that?"  were  the 
words  she  hurled  at  the  unabashed  secretary. 

"Nothing,"  was  his  grave  reply.  "I  did  not 
know  myself  what  was  false  in  it." 

With  sudden  faltering,  Mrs.  Packard  reseated 
herself,  while  the  mayor,  outraged  by  what  was 
evidently  a  very  unexpected  answer,  leaned  for 
ward  in  great  anger,  crying: 

"That  was  not  the  account  you  gave  me  of  this 
wretched  interview.  Explain  yourself,  Mr.  Steele. 

316 


MERCY 

Don't  you  see  that  your  silence  at  such  a  moment,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  attitude  you  at  present  assume, 
is  an  insult  to  Mrs.  Packard?" 

The  smile  he  met  in  reply  was  deprecatory 
enough;  so  were  the  words  his  outburst  had  called 
forth. 

"I  did  not  mean,  and  do  not  mean  to  insult  Mrs. 
Packard.  I  am  merely  showing  you  how  ham 
pered  a  man  is,  whatever  his  feelings,  when  it 
comes  to  a  question  of  facts  known  only  to  a  lady 
with  whom  he  has  not  exchanged  fifty  words  since 
he  came  into  her  house.  If  Mrs.  Packard  will  be 
good  enough  to  inform  me  just  how  much  and  how 
little  is  true  in  the  paragraph  we  are  considering, 
I  shall  see  this  rascally  reporter  again  and  give 
him  a  better  answer." 

Mayor  Packard  looked  unappeased.  This  was 
not  the  way  to  soothe  a  woman  whom  he  believed 
to  be  greatly  maligned.  With  an  exclamation  in 
dicative  of  his  feelings,  he  was  about  to  address 
some  hasty  words  to  the  composed,  almost  smiling, 
man  who  confronted  him,  when  Mrs.  Packard  her- 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

self  spoke  with  unexpected  self-control,  if  not 
disdain. 

"You  are  a  very  honest  man,  Mr.  Steele.  I  com 
mend  the  nicety  of  your  scruples  and  am  quite 
ready  to  trust  m}*self  to  them.  I  own  to  no  blot, 
in  my  past  or  present  life,  calling  for  public  ar 
raignment.  If  my  statement  of  the  fact  is  not 
enough,  I  here  swear  on  the  head  of  my  child — " 

<;Xo,  no,"  he  quickly  interpolated,  "don't 
frighten  the  baby.  Swearing  is  not  necessary ;  I 
am  bound  to  believe  your  word,  Mrs.  Packard." 
And  lifting  a  sheet  of  paper  from  a  pile  lying  on 
the  table  before  him,  he  took  a  pencil  from  his 
pocket  and  began  making  lines  to  amuse  the  child 
dancing  on  his  knee. 

Mrs.  Packard's  eyes  opened  in  wonder  mingled 
with  some  emotion  deeper  than  distaste,  but  she  said 
nothing,  only  watched  in  a  fascinated  way  his 
moving  fingers. 

The  mayor,  mollified  possibly  by  his  secretary's 
last  words,  sank  back  again  in  his  chair  with  the 
remark : 

318 


MERCY 

"You  have  heard  Mrs.  Packard's  distinct  denial. 
You  are  consequently  armed  for  battle.  See  that 
you  fight  well.  It  is  all  a  part  of  the  scheme  to 
break  me  up.  One  more  paragraph  of  that  kind 
and  I  shall  be  a  wreck,  even  if  my  campaign  is 
not." 

"There  will  not  be  any  more." 

"Ah!  you  can  assure  me  of  that?" 

"Positively." 

"What   are  you  playing   there?'9 

It  was  Mrs.  Packard  who  spoke.  She  was  point 
ing  at  the  scribble  he  was  making  on  the  paper. 

"Tit-tat-to,"  he  smiled,  "to  amuse  the  baby." 

Did  she  hate  to  see  him  so  occupied,  or  was  her 
own  restlessness  of  a  nature  demanding  a  like  out 
let? 

Tearing  her  eyes  away  from  him  and  the  child, 
she  looked  about  her  in  a  wild  way,  till  she  came 
upon  a  box  of  matches  standing  on  the  large 
center-table  around  which  they  were  all  grouped. 
Taking  some  in  her  hand,  she  commenced  to  lay 
them  out  on  the  table  before  her,  possibly  in  an 
319 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

attempt  to  attract  the  baby's  attention  to  herself. 
Puerile  business,  but  it  struck  me  forcibly,  possi 
bly  from  the  effect  it  appeared  to  have  upon  the 
mayor.  Looking  from  one  to  the  other  in  an  aston 
ishment  which  was  not  without  its  hint  of  some 
new  and  overmastering  feeling  on  his  own  part, 
he  remarked: 

"Isn't  it  time  for  the  baby  to  go  to  bed?  Surely 
our  talk  is  too  serious  to  be  interrupted  by  games 
to  please  a  child." 

Without  a  word  Mr.  Steelc  rose  and  put  the 
protesting  child  in  the  mother's  arms.  She,  rising, 
carried  it  to  the  door,  and,  coming  slowly  back, 
reseated  herself  before  the  table  and  began  to  push 
the  matches  about  again  with  fingers  that  trem 
bled  beyond  her  control.  The  mayor  proceeded  as 
if  no  time  had  elapsed  since  his  last  words. 

"You  had  some  words  then  with  this  Brainard — I 
think  you  called  him  Brainard — exacted  some 
promise  from  him?" 

"Yes,  your  Honor,"  was  the  only  reply. 

Did   not   Mrs.    Packard   speak,   too?      We   all 
320 


MERCY 

seemed  to  think  so,  for  we  turned  toward  her; 
but  she  gave  no  evidence  of  having  said  anything, 
though  an  increased  nervousness  was  visible  in  her 
fingers  as  she  pushed  the  matches  about. 

"I  thought  I  was  warranted  in  doing  so  much," 
continued  Mr.  Steele.  "I  could  not  buy  the  man 
with  money,  so  I  used  threats." 

"Right!  anything  to  squelch  him,"  exclaimed 
the  mayor,  but  not  with  the  vigor  I  expected  from 
him.  Some  doubt,  some  dread — caught  perhaps 
from  his  wife's  attitude  or  expression — seemed  to 
interpose  between  his  indignation  and  the  object 
of  it.  "You  are  our  good  friend,  Steele,  in  spite 
of  the  shock  you  gave  us  a  moment  ago." 

As  no  answer  was  made  to  this  beyond  a  smile 
too  subtle  and  too  fine  to  be  understood  by  his 
open-hearted  chief,  the  mayor  proceeded  to  de 
clare  : 

"Then  that  matter  is  at  an  end.  I  pray  that 
it  may  have  done  us  no  real  harm.  I  do  not  think 
it  has.  People  resent  attacks  on  women,  especially 
on  one  whose  reputation  has  never  known  a  shadow 
as  girl,  wife,  or  mother." 
321 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Yes,"  came  in  slow  assent  from  the  lips  which 
had  just  smiled,  and  he  glanced  at  Mrs.  Packard 
whose  own  lips  seemed  suddenly  to  become  dry, 
for  I  saw  her  try  to  moisten  them  as  her  right 
hand  groped  about  for  something  on  the  table- 
top  and  finally  settled  on  a  small  paper-weight 
which  she  set  down  amongst  her  matches.  Was  it 
then  or  afterward  that  I  began  to  have  my  first 
real  doubt  whether  some  shadow  had  not  fallen 
across  her  apparently  unsullied  life? 

"Yes,  you  are  right,"  repeated  Mr.  Steele  more 
energetically.  "People  do  resent  such  insinua 
tions  against  a  woman,  though  I  remember  one 
case  where  the  opposite  effect  was  produced.  It 
was  when  Collins  ran  for  supervisor  in  Cleveland. 
He  was  a  good  fellow  himself,  and  he  had  a  wife 
who  was  all  that  was  beautiful  and  charming,  but 
who  had  once  risked  her  reputation  in  an  act 
which  did  call  for  public  arraignment.  Unfor 
tunately,  there  was  a  man  who  knew  of  this  act 
and  he  published  it  right  and  left  and  — " 

"Olympia!"  Mayor  Packard  was  on  his  feet, 
322 


MERCY 

pointing  in  sudden  fury  and  suspicion  at  the  table 
where  the  matches  lay  about  in  odd  and,  as  I  now 
saw,  seemingly  set  figures.  "You  are  doing  some 
thing  besides  playing  with  those  matches.  I  know 
Mr.  Steele's  famous  cipher;  he  showed  it  to  me  a 
week  ago ;  and  so,  evidently,  do  you,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  you  have  had  barely  fifty  words  with  him 
since  he  came  to  the  house.  Let  me  read — ah! — 
give  over  that  piece  of  paper  you  have  there,  Steele, 
if  you  would  not  have  me  think  you  as  great  a 
dastard  as  we  know  that  Brainard  to  be !" 

And  while  his  wife  drooped  before  his  eyes  and 
a  cynical  smile  crept  about  the  secretary's  fine 
mouth,  he  caught  up  the  sheet  on  which  Steele  had 
been  playing  tit-tat-to  with  the  child,  and  glanced 
from  the  table  to  it  and  back  again  to  the  table 
on  which  the  matches  lay  in  the  following  device, 
the  paper-weight  answering  for  the  dot: 

"1  L  F  LJ  A 

"M,"  suddenly  left  the  mayor's  writhing  lips; 
then     slowly,    letter    by    letter,     "E — R — C — Y. 
323 


THE  MAJOR'S  WIFE 

Mercy !"  he  vociferated.  "Why  does  my  wife  ap 
peal  for  mercy  to  you — a  stranger — and  in  your 
own  cipher!  Miserable  woman!  What  secret's 
here?  Either  you  are  " 

"Hush !  some  one's  at  the  door !"  admonished  the 
secretary. 

Mr.  Packard  turned  quickly,  and,  smoothing  his 
face  rapidly,  as  such  men  must,  started  for  the 
door.  Mrs.  Packard,  flinging  her  whole  soul  into 
a  look,  met  the  secretary's  eyes  for  a  moment  and 
then  let  her  head  sink  forward  on  her  hands  above 
those  telltale  matches,  from  whose  arrangement  she 
had  reaped  despair  in  place  of  hope. 

Mr.  Steele  smiled  again,  his  fine,  false  smile,  but 
after  her  head  had  fallen ;  not  before.  Indeed,  he 
had  vouchsafed  no  reply  to  her  eloquent  look.  It 
was  as  if  it  had  met  marble  till  her  eyes  were  hid 
den;  then  

But  Nixon  was  in  the  open  doorway  and  Nixon 
was  speaking: 

"A  telegram,  your  Honor." 

The  old  man  spoke  briskly,  even  a  little  crisply — • 
324 


MERCY 

perhaps  he  always  did  when  he  addressed  the  may 
or.  But  his  eyes  roamed  eagerly  and  changed  to  a 
burning,  red  color  when  they  fell  upon  the  dejected 
figure  of  his  mistress.  I  fancied  that,  had  he  dared, 
he  would  have  leaped  into  the  room  and  taken  his 
own  part — and  who  could  rightly  gage  what  that 
was? — in  the  scene  which  may  have  been  far  more 
comprehensive  to  him  than  to  me.  But  he  did  not 
dare,  and  my  eyes  passed  from  him  to  the  mayor. 
"From  Haines,"  that  gentleman  announced,  for 
getting  the  suggestive  discovery  he  had  just  made 
in  the  great  and  absorbing  interest  of  his  com- 
paign.  "  'Speech  good — great  applause  becoming 
thunderous  at  flash  of  your  picture.  All  right  so 
far  if — 9  "  he  read  out,  ceasing  abruptly  at  the 
"if"  which,  as  I  afterward  understood,  really  ended 
the  message.  "No  answer,"  he  explained  to  Nixon 
as  he  hurriedly  dismissed  him.  "That  'if  con 
cerns  you,"  he  now  declared,  coming  back  to  his 
wife  and  to  his  troubles  at  the  same  instant.  "Ex 
plain  the  mystery  which  seems  likely  to  undo  me. 
Why  do  you  sit  there  bowed  under  my  accusations  ? 
325 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Why  should  Henry  Packard's  wife  cry  for  mercy 
to  any  man?  Because  those  damnable  accusations 
are  true?  Because  you  have  a  secret  in  your  past 
and  this  man  knows  it?" 

Slowly  she  rose,  slowly  she  met  his  eyes,  and 
even  he  started  back  at  her  pallor  and  the  drawn 
misery  in  her  face.  But  she  did  not  speak.  In 
stead  of  that  she  simply  reached  out  and  laid  her 
hand  on  Mr.  Steele's  arm,  drooping  almost  to  the 
ground  as  she  did  so. 

"Mercy !"  she  suddenly  wailed,  but  this  time  to 
the  man  who  had  so  relentlessly  accused  her. 

The  effect  was  appalling.  The  mayor  reeled, 
then  sprang  forward  with  his  hand  outstretched 
for  his  secretary's  throat.  But  his  words  were  for 
his  wife. 

"What  does  this  mean?  Why  do  you  take  your 
stand  by  the  side  of  another  man  than  myself? 
What  have  I  done  or  what  have  you  done  that 
I  should  live  to  face  such  an  abomination  as  this?" 

It  was  Steele  who  answered,  with  a  lift  of  his 
head  as  full  of  assertion  as  it  was  of  triumph. 

326 


MERCY 

"You?  nothing;  she?  everything.  You  do  not 
know  this  woman,  Mayor  Packard;  for  instance, 
you  do  not  know  her  name." 

"Not  know  her  name?  My  wife's?" 
"Not  in  the  least.  This  lady's  name  is  Brain- 
ard.  So  is  mine.  Though  she  has  lived  with  you 
several  years  in  ignorance  of  my  continued  exist 
ence,  no  doubt,  she  is  my  wife  and  not  yours.  We 
were  married  in  Boone,  Minnesota,  six  years  ago." 


327 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE   WIFE'S   TALE 

Ten  minutes  later  this  woman  was  pleading  her 
cause.  She  had  left  the  side  of  the  man  who  had 
just  assumed  the  greatest  of  all  rights  over  her 
and  was  standing  in  a  frenzy  of  appeal  before  him 
she  loved  so  deeply  and  yet  had  apparently 
wronged. 

Mayor  Packard  was  sitting  with  his  head  in  his 
hands  in  the  chair  into  which  he  had  dropped  when 
the  blow  fell  which  laid  waste  his  home,  his  life, 
the  future  of  his  child  and  possibly  the  career 
which  was  as  much,  perhaps  more,  to  him  than 
all  these.  He  had  not  uttered  a  word  since  that 
dreadful  moment.  To  all  appearance  her  moans  of 
contrition  fell  upon  deaf  ears,  and  she  had  reached 
the  crisis  of  her  misery  without  knowing  the  ex 
tent  of  the  condemnation  hidden  in  his  persistent 

328 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

silence.  Collapse  seemed  inevitable,  but  I  did  not 
know  the  woman  or  the  really  wonderful  grip  she 
held  on  herself.  Seeing  that  he  was  moved  by 
nothing  she  had  said,  she  suddenly  paused,  and 
presently  I  heard  her  observe  in  quite  a  different 
tone: 

"There  is  one  thing  you  must  know — which  I 
thought  you  would  know  without  my  telling  you. 
I  have  never  lived  with  this  man,  and  I  believed 
him  dead  when  I  gave  my  hand  to  you." 

The  mayor's  fingers  twitched.  She  had  touched 
him  at  last.  "Speak!  tell  me,"  he  murmured 
hoarsely.  "I  do  not  want  to  do  you  any  injustice." 

"I  shall  have  to  begin  far,  far  back ;  tell  about 
my  early  life  and  all  its  temptations,"  she  fal 
tered,  "or  you  will  never  understand." 

"Speak." 

Sensible  at  this  point  of  the  extreme  impropriety 
of  my  presence,  I  rose,  with  an  apology,  to  leave. 
But  she  shook  her  head  quickly,  determinedly, 
saying  that  as  I  had  heard  so  much  I  must  hear 
more.  Then  she  went  on  with  her  story, 
329 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"I  have  committed  a  great  fault,"  said  she,  "but 
one  not  so  deep  or  inexcusable  as  now  appears, 
whatever  that  man  may  say,"  she  added  with  a  slow 
turn  toward  the  silent  secretary. 

Did  she  expect  to  provoke  a  reply  from  the  man 
who,  after  the  first  triumphant  assertion  of  his 
claim,  had  held  himself  as  removed  from  her  and 
as  unresponsive  to  her  anguish  as  had  he  whom 
she  directly  addressed?  If  so,  she  must  have  found 
her  disappointment  bitter,  for  he  did  not  respond 
with  so  much  as  a  look.  He  may  have  smiled,  but 
if  so,  it  was  not  a  helpful  smile;  for  she  turned 
away  with  a  shudder  and  henceforth  faced  and 
addressed  the  mayor  only. 

"My  mother  married  against  the  wishes  of  all 
her  family  and  they  never  forgave  her.  My  father 
died  early — he  had  never  got  on  in  the  world — 
and  before  I  was  fifteen  I  became  the  sole  support 
of  my  invalid  mother  as  well  as  of  myself.  We 
lived  in  Boone,  Minnesota. 

"You  can  imagine  what  sort  of  support  it  was, 
as  I  had  no  special  talent,  no  training  and  only 
330 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

the  opportunity  given  by  a  crude  western  town  of 
two  or  three  hundred  inhabitants.  I  washed  dishes 
in  the  hotel  kitchen — I  who  had  a  millionaire  uncle 
in  Detroit  and  had  been  fed  on  tales  of  wealth  and 
culture  by  a  mother  who  remembered  her  own 
youth  and  was  too  ignorant  of  my  real  nature  to 
see  the  harm  she  was  doing.  I  washed  dishes  and 
ate  my  own  heart  out  in  shame  and  longing — bit 
ter  shame  and  frenzied  longing,  which  you  must 
rate  at  their  full  force  if  you  would  know  my  story 
and  how  I  became  linked  to  this  man. 

"I  was  sixteen  when  we  first  met.  He  was  not 
then  what  he  is  now,  but  he  was  handsome  enough 
to  create  an  excitement  in  town  and  to  lift  the  girl 
he  singled  out  into  an  enviable  prominence.  Unfor 
tunately,  I  was  that  girl.  I  say  unfortunately,  be 
cause  his  good  looks  failed  to  arouse  in  me  more 
than  a  passing  admiration ;  and  in  accepting  his 
attentions,  I  consulted  my  necessities  and  pride 
rather  than  the  instincts  of  my  better  nature. 
When  he  asked  me  to  marry  him  I  recoiled.  I  did 
not  know  why  then,  nor  did  I  know  why  later ;  but 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  know  why  now.  However,  I  let  this  premonition 
pass  and  engaged  myself  to  him,  and  the  one 
happy  moment  I  knew  was  when  I  told  my  mother 
what  I  had  done,  and  saw  her  joy  and  heard  the 
hope  with  which  she  impulsively  cried:  'It  is 
something  I  can  write  your  uncle.  Who  knows? 
Perhaps  he  may  forgive  me  my  marriage  when 
he  hears  that  my  child  is  going  to  do  so  well!' 
Poor  mother!  she  had  felt  the  glamour  of  my  lov 
er's  good  looks  and  cleverness  much  more  than  I 
had.  She  saw  from  indications  to  which  I  was 
blind  that  I  was  going  to  marry  a  man  of  mark, 
and  was  much  more  interested  in  the  possible  re 
ply  she  might  receive  to  the  letter  with  which  she 
had  broken  the  silence  of  years  between  herself  and 
her  family  than  in  the  marriage  itself. 

"But  days  passed,  a  week,  and  no  answer  came. 
My  uncle — the  only  relative  remaining  in  which 
we  could  hope  to  awaken  any  interest,  or  rather, 
the  only  one  whose  interest  would  be  worth 
awakening,  he  being  a  millionaire  and  unmarried 
— declined,  it  appeared,  any  communication  with 
332 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

one  so  entirely  removed  from  his  sympathies;  and 
the  disappointment  of  it  broke  my  mother's  heart. 
Before  my  wedding-day  came  she  was  lying  in  the 
bare  cemetery  I  had  passed  so  often  with  a  cold 
dread  in  my  young  and  bounding  heart. 

"With  her  loss  the  one  true  and  unselfish  bond 
which  held  me  to  my  lover  was  severed,  and,  un 
known  to  him — (perhaps  he  hears  it  now  for  the 
first  time) — I  had  many  hours  of  secret  hesitation 
which  might  have  ended  in  a  positive  refusal  to 
marry  him  if  I  had  not  been  afraid  of  his  anger 
and  the  consequences  of  an  open  break.     With  all 
his  protestations  of  affection  and  the  very  ardent 
love  he  made  me,  he  had  not  succeeded  in  rous 
ing  my  affections,  but  he  had  my  fears.     I  knew 
that  to  tell  him  to  his  face  I  would  not  marry  him 
would  mean  death  to  him  and  possibly  to  myself. 
Such  intuition,  young  as  I  was,  did  I  have  of  his 
character,  though  I  comprehended  so  little  the  real 
range  of  his  mind  and  the  unswerving  trend  of 
his  ambitious  nature. 

"So  my  wedding-day  came  and  we  were  united 
333 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

in  the  very  hotel  where  I  had  so  long  served  in 
a  menial  capacity.  The  social  distinctions  in  such 
a  place  being  small  and  my  birth  and  breeding 
really  placing  me  on  a  par  with  my  employer  and 
his  family,  I  was  given  the  parlor  for  this  cele 
bration  and  never,  never,  shall  I  forget  its  mean 
and  bare  look,  even  to  my  untutored  eyes ;  or  how 
lonely  those  far  hills  looked,  through  the  small- 
paned  window  I  faced ;  or  what  a  shadow  seemed 
to  fall  across  them  as  the  parson  uttered  those 
fateful  words,  so  terrible  to  one  whose  heart  is  not 
in  them :  What  God  hath  joined  together  let  no  man 
put  asunder.  Death  and  not  life  awaited  me  on 
that  bleak  hillside,  or  so  I  thought,  though  the 
bridegroom  at  my  side  was  the  handsomest  man  I 
had  ever  seen  and  had  rather  exceeded  than  failed 
in  his  devotion  to  me  as  a  lover. 

"The  ceremony  over,  I  went  up-stairs  to  make 
my  final  preparations  for  departure.  No  brides 
maids  or  real  friends  had  lent  joy  to  the  occasion; 
and  when  I  closed  that  parlor  door  upon  my  bride 
groom  and  the  two  or  three  neighbors  and  boon 
334 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

companions  with  whom  he  was  making  merry,  I 
found  myself  alone  with  my  dead  heart  and  a  most 
unwelcome  future.  I  remember,  as  the  lock  clicked 
and  the  rude  hall,  ruder  even  than  the  wretched 
half -furnished  room  I  had  just  left,  opened  before 
me,  a  sensation  of  terror  at  leaving  even  this  homely 
refuge  and  a  half -formed  wish  that  I  was  going 
back  to  my  dish- washing  in  the  kitchen.  It  was 
therefore  with  a  shock,  which  makes  my  brain  reel 
yet,  that  I  saw,  lying  on  a  little  table  which  I  had 
to  pass,  a  letter  directed  to  myself,  bearing  the 
postmark,  Detroit.  What  might  there  not  be  in 
it?  What?  What? 

"Gasping  as  much  with  fear  as  delight,  I  caught 
up  the  letter,  and,  rushing  with  it  to  my  room, 
locked  myself  in  and  tore  open  the  envelope.  A 
single  sheet  fell  out;  it  was  signed  with  the  name 
I  had  heard  whispered  in  my  ear  from  early  child 
hood,  and  always  in  connection  with  riches  and 
splendor  and  pleasures, — it  was  rapture  to  dream 
of.  This  was  an  agitation  in  itself,  but  the  words ! 
the  words !  I  have  never  told  them  to  mortal  be- 
335 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ing,  but  I  must  tell  them  now;  I  remember  them 
as  I  remember  the  look  of  my  child's  face  when 
she  was  first  put  in  my  arms,  the  child — " 

She  had  underrated  her  strength.  She  broke  in 
to  a  storm  of  weeping  which  shook  to  the  very  soul 
one  of  the  two  men  who  listened  to  her,  though  he 
made  no  move  to  comfort  her  or  allay  it.  The 
alienation  thus  expressed  produced  its  effect,  and, 
stricken  deeper  than  the  fount  of  tears,  she  sud 
denly  choked  back  every  sob  and  took  up  the  thread 
of  her  narrative  with  the  calmness  born  of  despair. 

"These  were  the  words,  these  and  no  others : 

"  'If  my  niece  will  break  all  ties  and  come  to  me 
completely  unhampered,  she  may  hope  to  find  a 
permanent  home  in  my  house  and  a  close  hold  upon 
my  affections. 

IRA  T.  HOUGHTALING.' 

"Unhampered!  with  the  marriage-vow  scarcely 
cold  on  my  lips !  Without  tie !  and  a  husband 
waiting  below  to  take  me  to  his  home  on  the  hill 
side — a  hillside  so  bare  and  bleak  that  the  sight  of 

336 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

it  had  sent  a  shudder  to  my  heart  as  the  wedding- 
ring  touched  my  finger.  The  irony  of  the  situ 
ation  was  more  than  I  could  endure,  and  alone, 
with  my  eyes  fixed  on  the  comfortless  heavens, 
showing  gray  and  cold  through  the  narrow  panes 
of  my  windows,  I  sank  to  the  floor  insensible. 

"When  I  came  to  myself  I  was  still  alone,  and 
the  twilight  a  little  more  pronounced  than  when 
my  misery  had  turned  it  to  blackest  midnight. 
Rising,  I  read  that  letter  again,  and,  plainly  as 
the  acknowledgment  betrays  the  selfishness  lying 
at  the  basis  of  my  character,  the  temptation  which 
thereupon  seized  me  had  never  an  instant  of  relent 
ing  or  one  conscientious  scruple  to  combat  it.  I 
simply,  at  that  stage  in  my  life  and  experience, 
could  not  do  otherwise  than  I  did.  Saying  to  my 
self  that  vows,  as  empty  of  heart  as  mine,  were  void 
before  God  and  man,  I  sat  down  and  wrote  a  few 
words  to  the  man  whose  step  on  the  stair  I  dreaded 
above  everything  else  in  the  world;  and,  leaving 
the  note  on  the  table,  unlocked  my  door  and 
looked  out.  The  hall  connecting  with  my  room  was 
337 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

empty,  but  not  so  the  lower  one.  There  I  could 
hear  voices  and  laughter,  Mr.  Brainard's  loud 
above  all  the  rest, — a  fatal  sound  to  me,  cutting 
off  all  escape  in  that  direction.  But  another  way 
offered  and  that  one  near  at  hand.  Communicating 
with  the  very  hall  in  which  I  stood  was  an  outside 
staircase  running  down  to  the  road — a  means  of 
entering  and  leaving  a  house  which  I  never  see 
now  wherever  I  may  encounter  it,  without  a  gush 
of  inward  shame  and  terror,  so  instinctive  and  so 
sharp  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  hide  it  from 
any  one  whose  eye  might  chance  to  be  upon  me  at 
the  moment.  But  that  night  I  was  conscious  of  no 
shame,  barely  of  any  terror,  only  of  the  necessity 
for  haste.  The  train  on  which  I  was  determined 
to  fly  was  due  in  a  little  less  than  an  hour  at  a  sta 
tion  two  miles  down  the  road. 

"That  I  should  be  followed  farther  than  the 
turbulent  stream  which  crossed  the  road  only  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  hotel,  I  did  not  fear. 
For  in  the  hurried  note  I  had  left  behind  me,  I  had 
bidden  them  to  look  for  me  there,  saying  that  I 

338 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

had  been  precipitate  in  marrying  one  I  did  not 
really  love,  and,  overcome  by  a  sense  of  my  mis 
take,  I  was  resolved  on  death. 

"A  lie !  but  what  was  a  lie  to  me  then,  who  saw 
in  my  life  with  this  man  an  amelioration  of  my 
present  state,  but  an  amelioration  only,  while  in 
the  prospects  held  out  to  me  by  my  uncle  I  fore 
saw  not  only  release  from  a  hated  union,  but  every 
delight  which  my  soul  had  craved  since  my 
mother  could  talk  to  me  of  wealth  and  splendor. 

"Behold  me,  then,  stealing  down  the  side  of 
the  house  in  a  darkness  which  during  the  last  few 
minutes  had  become  impenetrable.  A  shadow, 
where  all  was  shadowy,  I  made  for  the  woods  and 
succeeded  in  reaching  their  shelter  just  as  there 
rose  in  the  distance  behind  me  that  most  terrible 
of  all  sounds  to  a  woman's  ear,  a  man's  loud  cry 
of  anguish  and  rage." 

She  was  not  looking  at  that  man  now,  but  I  was. 

As  these  words  left  her  lips,  Mr.  Steele's  hand  crept 

up  and  closed  over  his  heart,  though  his  face  was 

like  that  of  a  marble  image  set  in  immovable  lines. 

339 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  feared  him,  I  admired  him,  and  found  myself 
still  looking  at  him  as  she  went  gaspingly  on : 

"Reckless  of  the  dangers  of  the  road,  fearing 
nothing  but  what  pressed  upon  me  from  behind,  I 
flew  straight  for  the  stream,  on  whose  verge  I  meant 
then  to  stop,  and,  having  by  some  marvel  of  good 
luck  or  Providence  reached  it  without  a  mishap,  I 
tore  the  cloak  from  my  shoulders,  and,  affixing  one 
end  to  the  broken  edge  of  the  bridge,  flung  the 
other  into  the  water.  Then  with  one  loud  ear- 
piercing  shriek  thrown  back  on  the  wind — see !  I 
tell  all — I  leave  out  nothing — I  fled  away  in  the 
direction  of  the  station. 

"For  some  reason  I  had  great  confidence  in  the 
success  of  this  feint  and  soon  was  conscious  of  but 
one  fear,  and  that  was  being  recognized  by  the 
station-master,  who  knew  my  face  and  figure  even 
if  he  did  not  know  my  new  city-made  dress.  So 
when  I  had  made  sure  by  the  clock  visible  from 
the  end  window  that  I  was  in  ample  time  for  the 
expected  train,  I  decided  to  remain  in  the  dark  at 
the  end  of  the  platform  till  the  cars  were  about 
340 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

starting,  and  then  to  jump  on  and  buy  my  ticket 
from  the  conductor. 

"But  I  never  expected  such  an  interminable  wait. 
Minute  after  minute  went  by  without  a  hint  of 
preparation  for  the  advancing  train.  The  hour  for 
leaving  arrived,  passed,  and  not  a  man  had  shown 
himself  on  the  platform.  Had  a  change  been  made 
in  the  time-table?  If  so,  what  a  prospect  lay  be 
fore  me !  Autumn  nights  are  chill  in  Minnesota, 
and,  my  cloak  having  been  sacrificed,  I  found  poor 
protection  in  my  neat  but  far  from  warm  serge 
dress.  However,  I  did  not  fully  realize  my  posi 
tion  till  another  passenger  arrived  late  and  pant 
ing,  and  I  heard  some  one  shout  out  to  him  from 
the  open  door  that  an  accident  had  occurred  below 
and  that  it  would  be  five  hours  at  least  before  the 
train  would  come  through. 

"Five  hours !  and  no  shelter  in  sight  save  the 
impossible  one  of  the  station  itself.  How  could  I 
pass  away  that  time !  How  endure  the  cold  and 
fatigue?  By  pacing  to  and  fro  in  the  road?  I 
tried  it,  resolutely  tried  it,  for  an  hour,  then  a  new 
341 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

terror,  a  new  suspense,  gripped  me,  and  I  discov 
ered  that  I  could  never  live  through  the  hours; 
never,  in  fact,  take  the  train  when  it  came  without 
knowing  what  had  happened  in  Boone  and  whether 
the  feint  on  which  I  relied  had  achieved  its  pur 
pose.  There  was  time  to  steal  back,  time  to  see  and 
hear  what  would  satisfy  me  of  my  own  safety ;  and 
then  to  have  some  purpose  in  my  movement!  How 
much  better  than  this  miserable  pacing  back  and 
forth  just  to  start  the  stagnating  blood  and  make 
the  lagging  moments  endurable ! 

"So  I  turned  again  toward  Boone.  I  was  not  in 
the  mood  to  fear  darkness  or  any  encounter  save 
one,  and  experienced  hesitation  only  when  I  found 
myself  reapproaching  the  bridge.  Shadows  which 
had  protected  me  until  now  failed  me  there,  and 
it  was  with  caution  I  finally  advanced  and  emerged 
upon  the  open  spot  where  the  road  crossed  the 
river.  But  even  this  was  not  needed.  In  the  wide 
stretch  before  me  cut  by  the  inky  stream,  I  saw 
no  signs  of  life,  and  it  was  not  till  I  was  on  the 
bridge  itself  that  I  discerned  in  the  black  hollows 
342 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

below  the  glint  of  a  lantern,  lighting  up  the  bend 
ing  forms  of  two  or  three  men  who  were  dragging 
at  something  which  heaved  under  their  hands  with 
the  pull  of  the  stream. 

"It  was  a  sight  which  has  never  left  me,  but  one 
which  gave  wings  to  my  feet  that  night  and  sent 
me  flying  on  till  a  fork  in  the  road  brought  me 
to  a  standstill.  To  the  left  lay  the  hotel.  I  could 
see  its  windows  glimmering  with  faint  lights,  while, 
away  to  the  right,  there  broke  upon  me  from  the 
hillside  a  solitary  sparkle ;  but  this  sparkle  came 
from  the  house  where,  but  for  the  letter  hidden  in 
my  heart,  I  should  be  sitting  at  this  moment  before 
my  own  fireside. 

"What  moved  me?  God  knows.  It  may  have 
been  duty ;  it  may  have  been  curiosity ;  it  may  have 
been  only  dread  to  know  the  worst  and  know  it  at 
once ;  but  seeing  that  single  gleam  I  began  to  move 
toward  it,  and,  before  I  was  aware,  I  had  reached 
the  house,  edged  up  to  its  unshaded  window  and 
taken  a  frightened  look  within. 

"I  was  prepared  and  yet  unprepared  for  what  I 
343 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

saw.  Within,  standing  alone,  with  garments  drip 
ping,  gazing  in  frenzy  at  a  slip  of  paper  which 
clung  wet  about  his  hand,  stood  my  husband.  My 
words  to  him  !  I  could  see  it  in  his  eyes  and  the  des 
peration  which  lit  up  all  his  features. 

"Drawing  back  in  terror  from  the  road,  I 
watched  him  fling  that  letter  off  from  his  fingers 
as  he  would  a  biting  snake,  and,  striding  to  a  cup 
board  high  up  on  the  wall,  take  down  something 
I  could  not  see  and  did  not  guess  at  till  the  sharp 
sound  of  a  pistol-shot  cleft  my  ear,  and  I  beheld 
him  fall  face  downward  on  the  carpet  of  fresh  au 
tumn  leaves  with  which  he  had  hidden  the  bare  floor 
in  expectation  of  his  bride. 

"The  shriek  which  involuntarily  went  up  from 
my  lips  must  have  rung  far  and  wide,  but  only  the 
groaning  of  the  night-wind  answered  me.  Driven 
by  my  fears  to  do  something  to  save  him  if  he  was 
not  yet  dead,  I  tried  the  door,  but  it  was  locked ;  so 
was  the  window.  Yet  I  might  have  battered  my 
way  in  at  that  moment  had  I  not  heard  two  men 
coming  down  the  road,  one  of  whom  was  shouting 
344 


"The  sharp  sound  of  a  pistol  shot  cleft  my  ear.''      Page  344. 


THE  WIFE'S  TALE 

to  the  other :  <I  did  not  like  his  face.    I  shan't  sleep 
till  I've  seen  him  again.' 

"Somewhat  relieved,  I  drew  back  from  the  road, 
but  did  not  quit  the  spot  till  those  men,  seeing 
through  the  window  what  had  happened,  worked 
their  way  in  and  lifted  him  up  in  their  arms.  The 
look  with  which  they  let  him  fall  back  again  was 
eloquent,  and  convinced  me  that  it  was  death  I 
saw.  I  started  again  upon  my  shuddering  flight 
from  Boone,  secure  in  the  belief  that  while  my 
future  would  surely  hold  remorse  for  me,  it  would 
nevermore  burden  me  with  a  hindrance  in  the 
shape  of  an  unloved  husband," 


345 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE   SINS    OF    THE    FATHERS 

The  suspense  which  had  held  us  tense  and 
speechless  was  for  the  moment  relieved  and  Mr. 
Steele  allowed  himself  the  following  explanation: 

"My  hand  trembled  and  the  bullet  penetrated 
an  inch  too  high."  Then  he  relapsed  again  into 
silence. 

Mrs.  Packard  shuddered  and  went  on : 

"It  may  seem  incredible  to  you,  it  seems  incred 
ible  now  to  myself,  but  I  completed  my  journey,  en 
tered  my  uncle's  house,  was  made  welcome  there 
and  started  upon  my  new  life  without  letting  my 
eyes  fall  for  one  instant  on  the  columns  of  a  news 
paper.  I  did  not  dare  to  see  what  they  contained. 
That  short  but  bitter  episode  of  my  sixteenth  year 
was  a  nightmare  of  horror,  to  be  buried  with  my 
old  name  and  all  that  could  interfere  with  the  de 
lights  of  the  cultured  existence  which  my  uncle's 
346 


THE  SINS  OF  THE  FATHERS 

means  and  affection  opened  before  me.  Two  years 
and  I  hardly  remembered ;  three  years  and  it  came 
to  me  only  in  dreams ;  four  and  even  dreams  failed 
to  suggest  it ;  the  present,  the  glorious  present  was 
all.  I  had  met  you,  Henry,  and  we  had  loved  and 
married. 

"Did  any  doubts  come  to  disturb  my  joy?  Very 
few.  I  had  never  received  a  word  from  Minnesota. 
I  was  as  dead  to  every  one  there  as  they  all  were 
to  me.  I  believed  myself  free  and  that  the  only 
wrong  I  did  was  in  not  taking  you  into  my  confi 
dence.  But  this,  the  very  nature  of  my  secret 
forbade.  How  could  I  tell  you  what  would  inevita 
bly  alienate  your  affections  ?  That  act  of  my  early 
girlhood  by  which  I  had  gained  an  undeserved  free 
dom  had  been  too  base;  sooner  than  let  you  know 
this  blot  on  my  life,  I  was  content  to  risk  the  pos 
sibility — the  inconceivable  possibility — of  Mr. 
Brainard's  having  survived  the  attack  he  had  made 
upon  his  own  life.  Can  you  understand  such  te 
merity?  I  can  not,  now  that  I  see  its  results  be 
fore  me. 

347 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"So  the  die  was  cast  and  I  became  a  wife  in 
stead  of  the  mere  shadow  of  one.  You  were  pros 
perous,  and  not  a  sorrow  came  to  disturb  my  sense 
of  complete  security  till  that  day  two  weeks  ago, 
when,  looking  up  in  my  own  library,  I  saw,  gleam 
ing  between  me  and  the  evening  lamp,  a  face, 
which,  different  as  it  was  in  many  respects,  tore 
my  dead  past  out  of  the  grave  and  sent  my 
thoughts  reeling  back  to  a  lonely  road  on  a  black 
hillside  with  a  lighted  window  in  view,  and  behind 
that  window  the  outstretched  form  of  a  man  with 
his  head  among  leaves  not  redder  than  his  blood. 

"I  have  said  to  you,  I  have  said  to  others,  that  a 
specter  rose  upon  me  that  day  in  the  library.  It 
was  such  to  me, — an  apparition  and  nothing  else. 
Perhaps  he  meant  to  impress  himself  as  such,  for  I 
had  heard  no  footfall  and  only  looked  up  because 
of  the  constraining  force  of  the  look  which  awaited 
me.  I  knew  afterward  that  it  was  a  man  whom  I 
had  seen,  a  man  whom  you  yourself  had  introduced 
into  the  house;  but  at  the  instant  I  thought  it  a 
phantom  of  my  forgotten  past  sent  to  shock  and 

348 


THE  SINS  OF  THE  FATHERS 

destroy  me;  and,  struck  speechless  with  the  hor 
ror  of  it,  I  lost  that  opportunity  of  mutual  expla 
nation  which  might  have  saved  me  an  unnecessary 
and  cruel  experience.  For  this  man,  who  recog 
nized  me  more  surely  than  I  did  him,  who  perhaps 
knew  who  I  was  before  he  ever  entered  my  house, 
has  sported  for  two  weeks  with  my  fears  and  hopes 
as  a  tiger  with  his  prey.  Maintaining  his  attitude 
of  stranger — you  have  been  witness  to  his  manner 
in  my  presence — he  led  me  slowly  but  surely  to  be- 
lieve  myself  deceived  by  an  extraordinary  resem 
blance  ;  a  resemblance,  moreover,  which  did  not  hold 
at  all  times,  and  which  frequently  vanished  alto 
gether,  as  I  recalled  the  straight-featured  but  of 
ten  uncouth  aspect  of  the  man  who  had  awakened 
the  admiration  of  Boone.  Memory  had  been  awak 
ened  and  my  sleep  filled  with  dreams,  but  the  unen 
durable  had  been  spared  me  and  I  was  thanking 
God  with  my  whole  heart,  when  suddenly  one  night, 
when  an  evening  spent  with  friends  in  the  old  way 
had  made  me  feel  safe,  my  love  safe,  my  husband 
and  my  child  safe,  there  came  to  my  ears  from  be- 
349 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

low  the  sound  of  a  laugh,  loud,  coarse  and  deriding, 
— such  a  laugh  as  could  spring  from  no  member 
of  my  own  household,  such  a  laugh  as  I  heard  but 
once  before  and  that  in  the  by-gone  years  when 
some  one  asked  Mr.  Brainard  if  he  meant  to  live 
always  in  Boone.  The  shock  was  terrible,  and 
when  I  learned  that  the  secretary,  and  the  secretary 
only,  was  below,  I  knew  who  that  secretary  was  and 
yielded  to  the  blow. 

"Yet  hope  dies  hard  with  the  happy.  I  knew, 
but  it  was  not  enough  to  know, — I  must  be  sure. 
There  was  a  way — it  came  to  me  with  my  first  flut 
tering  breath  as  I  recovered  from  my  faint.  In 
those  old  days  when  I  was  thrown  much  with  this 
man,  he  had  shown  me  a  curious  cipher  and  taught 
me  how  to  use  it.  It  was  original  with  himself, 
he  said,  and  some  day  we  might  be  glad  of  a 
method  of  communication  which  would  render  our 
correspondence  inviolable.  I  could  not  see  why  he 
considered  this  likely  ever  to  be  desirable,  but  I  took 

the  description  of  it  which  he  gave  me  and  promised 

•   '  '  i  '  '  '  i  ' 

that  I  would  never  let  it  leave  my  person.     I  even 

350 


THE  SINS  OF  THE  FATHERS 

allowed  him  to  solder  about  my  neck  the  chain  which 

held  the  locket  in  which  he  had  olaced  it.     Conse- 

d 

quently  I  had  it  with  me  when  I  fled  from  Boone, 
and  for  the  first  few  weeks  after  arriving  at  my 
uncle's  house  in  Detroit.  Then,  wishing  to  banish 
every  reminder  of  days  I  was  so  anxious  to  forget, 
I  broke  that  chain,  destroyed  the  locket  and  hid 
away  from  every  one's  sight  the  now  useless  and 
despised  cipher.  Why  I  retained  the  cipher  I  can 
not  explain.  Now,  that  cipher  must  prove  my  sal 
vation.  If  I  could  find  it  again  I  was  sure  that  the 
shock  of  receiving  from  my  hand  certain  words 
written  in  the  symbols  he  had  himself  taught  me 
would  call  from  him  an  involuntary  revelation.  I 
should  know  what  I  had  to  fear.  But  so  many 
changes  had  taken  place  and  so  long  a  time 
elapsed  since  I  hid  this  slip  of  paper  away  that  I 
was  not  even  sure  I  still  retained  it;  but  after 
spending  a  good  share  of  the  night  in  searching 
for  it,  I  finally  came  across  it  in  one  of  my  old 
trunks. 

"The  next  morning  I  made  my  test.     Perhaps, 
351 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Henry,  you  remember  my  handing  Mr.  Steele  an 
empty  envelope  to  mail  which  he  returned  with 
an  air  of  surprise  so  natural  and  seemingly  un 
feigned  that  he  again  forced  me  to  believe  that  he 
was  the  stranger  he  appeared.  Though  he  must 
have  recognized  at  a  glance — for  he  was  an  adept 
in  this  cipher  once — the  seven  simple  symbols  in 
which  I  had  expressed  the  great  cry  of  my  soul — 
'Is  it  you?'  he  acted  the  innocent  secretary  so 

perfectly  that  all  my  old  hopes  returned  and  I  ex- 

.  i       '•. 

perienced  one  hour  of  perfect  joy.  Then  came  an 
other  reaction.  Letty  brought  in  the  baby  with  a 
paper  pinned  to  her  coat.  She  declared  to  us  that 
a  woman  had  been  the  instrument  of  this  outrage, 
though  the  marks  inside,  suggesting  the  cipher  but 
with  characteristic  variations  bespeaking  malice, 
could  only  have  been  made  by  one  hand. 

"How  I  managed  to  maintain  sufficient  hold  upon 
my  mind  to  drag  the  key  from  my  breast  and  by 
its  means  to  pick  out  the  meaning  of  the  first  three 
words — words  which  once  read  suggested  all  the 
rest — I  can  not  now  imagine.  Death  was  in  my 
352 


THE  SINS  OF  THE  FATHERS 

heart  and  the  misery  of  it  all  more  than  human 

» 
strength  could  bear;  yet  I  compared  paper  with 

paper  carefully,  intelligently,  till  these  words  from 
the  prayer-book  with  all  their  threatening  meaning 
to  me  and  mine  started  into  life  before  me:  'Vis 
iting  the  sins — '  Henry,  you  know  the  words — 
'Visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation.'  Upon  the 
children!  Henry,  he  meant  Laura!  our  little 
Laura !  I  had  wakened  vengeance  in  a  fiend.  The 
man  who  had  calmly  smiled  in  my  face  as  he  handed 
me  back  that  empty  envelope  inscribed  with  the 
wild  appeal,  'Is  it  you?'  was  the  man  I  had  once 
driven  to  the  verge  of  the  grave  and  who  had  come 
back  now  to  destroy  us  all. 

"Yet,  such  is  the  reaching  out  of  the  drowning 
for  straws,  I  did  not  utterly  despair  till  Nixon 
brought  me  from  this  man's  lodging-house,  where 
I  had  sent  him,  a  specimen  of  his  handwriting. 

"Nixon  is  the  only  confidant  I  have  had.  Nixon 
knew  me  as  a  girl  when  he  worked  in  my  uncle's 
home,  and  has  always  had  the  most  unbounded,  I 
353 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

may  say  jealous,  affection  for  me.  To  him  I  had 
dared  impart  that  I  did  not  trust  your  new  secre 
tary;  that  he  looked  like  a  man  I  once  knew  who 
was  a  determined  opponent  of  the  party  now  try 
ing  to  elect  you ;  that  a  specimen  of  his  writing 
would  make  me  quite  sure,  and  begged  him  to  get 
it.  I  thought  he  might  pick  up  such  in  the  little 
office  below,  but  he  was  never  able  to  do  so — Mr. 
Steele  has  taken  care  not  to  leave  a  line  written  in 
this  house — but  he  did  find  a  few  lines  signed  with 
his  name  in  his  own  room  at  the  boarding-house, 
and  these  he  showed  me  before  he  told  me  the  result 
of  his  errand.  They  settled  all  doubts.  What  is 
to  be  my  fate?  Surely  this  man  has  no  real  claim 
on  me,  after  all  these  years,  when  I  thought  my 
self  your  true  and  honest  wife.  He  may  ruin  your 
campaign,  defeat  your  hopes,  overwhelm  me  with 
calumny  and  a  loss  of  repute,  but  surely,  surely 
he  can  not  separate  us.  The  law  will  not  uphold 
him  in  that;  will  it,  Henry?  Say  that  it  will  not, 
say — oh,  say  that — it — will  not — do — that,  or  we 
shall  live  to  curse  the  day,  not  when  we  were  born, 
but  when  our  little  innocent  child  came  to  us !" 
354 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE    FINGER    ON    THE    WALL 

At  this  appeal  the  mayor  rose  and  faced  his  sec 
retary  and  the  spectacle  was  afforded  me  of  seeing 
two  strong  men  drawn  up  in  conflict  over  a  woman 
both  had  cherished  above  all  else.  And  it  was  char 
acteristic  of  the  forceful  men,  as  well  as  the  ex 
treme  nature  of  the  conflict,  that  both  were  quiet 
in  manner  and  speech — perhaps  the  mayor  the 
more  so,  as  he  began  the  struggle  by  saying: 

"Is  what  Mrs.  Packard  says  of  your  playing 
with  her  fears  during  these  two  weeks  true,  Mr. 
Steele?" 

Without  a  droop  of  his  eye,  or  a  tremor  in  his 
voice,  the  answer  came  short,  sharp  and  emphatic: 

"Yes." 

"Then,  you  are  a  villain!  and  I  shall  not  feel 
myself  called  upon  to  show  you  any  consideration 
beyond  what  justice  demands.  Have  you  any  plea 
355 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to  urge  beyond  the  natural  one  of  her  seemingly 
unprovoked  desertion  of  you  ?  Has  not  my  wife — " 
the  nobility  with  which  he  emphasized  those  two 
words  made  my  heart  swell — "spoken  the  truth?" 

Ah!  then  the  mask  of  disdainful  serenity  with 
which  the  other  had  hitherto  veiled  the  burning 
anguish  of  his  soul  fell  in  one  burst  of  irresistible 
passion. 

"True !  yes,  it  is  true.  But  what  does  that  truth 
involve  for  me?  Not  two  weeks,  but  seven  years 
of  torture,  five  of  them  devoted  to  grief  for  her 
loss,  and  two  to  rage  and  bitter  revulsion  against 
her  whole  sex  when  I  found  her  alive,  and  myself 
the  despised  victim  of  her  deception." 

"She  wronged  you — she  acknowledges  that — but 
it  was  the  wrong  of  an  unthinking  child — not  of  a 
realizing  woman.  Would  you,  a  realizing  man,  tear 
her  now  from  home,  from  her  child,  from  her  place 
in  the  community  and  my  heart — make  her  despic 
able  as  well  as  unhappy,  just  to  feed  your  re 
venge  ?" 

"Yes,  I  would  do  that." 
356 


THE  FINGER  ON  THE  WALL 

"Jeopardize  interests  you  have  so  often  pro 
fessed  in  my  hearing  to  be  far  above  personal  con 
sideration — the  success  of  your  party,  the  triumph 
of  your  political  principles  ?" 

"My  political  principles !"  Oh,  the  irony  of  his 
voice,  the  triumph  in  his  laugh!  "And  what  do 
you  know  of  them?  What  I  have  said.  Mayor 
Packard,  your  education  as  a  politician  has  yet  to 
be  completed  before  you  will  be  fit  for  the  gov 
ernorship  of  a  state.  I  am  an  adept  at  the  glori 
fication  of  the  party,  of  the  man  that  it  suits  my 
present  exigencies  to  promote,  but  it  is  a  faculty 
which  should  have  made  you  pause  before  you 
trusted  me  with  the  furtherance  and  final  success 
of  a  campaign  which  may  outlast  those  exigencies. 
I  have  not  always  been  of  your  party ;  I  am  not  so 
now  at  heart." 

The  mayor,  outraged  in  every  sentiment  of  honor 
as  well  as  in  the  most  cherished  feelings  of  his  heart, 
lowered  upon  his  unmoved  secretary  with  a  wrath 
which  would  have  borne  down  any  other  man  be 
fore  it. 

357 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

"Do  you  mean  to  say,  you,  that  your  work  is  a 
traitor's  work?  That  the  glorification  you  speak 
of  is  false?  That  you  may  talk  in  my  favor,  but 
that  when  you  come  to  the  issue,  you  will  vote  ac 
cording  to  your  heart, — that  is,  for  Stanton?" 

"I  have  succeeded  in  making  myself  intelligible." 

The  mayor  flushed;  indignation  gave  him  vehe 
mence. 

"Then,"  he  cried,  "I  take  back  the  word  by  which 
I  qualified  you  a  moment  ago.  You  are  not  a  vil 
lain,  you  arc  a  dastard." 

Mr.  Steele  bowed  in  a  way  which  turned  the 
opprobrium  into  a  seeming  compliment. 

"I  have  suffered  so  many  wrongs  at  your  hands 
that  I  can  not  wonder  at  suffering  this  one  more." 
Then  slowly  and  with  a  short  look  at  her:  "The 

woman  who  has  queened  it  so  long  in  C 

society  can  not  wish  to  undergo  the  charge  of  big 
amy?" 

"You  will  bring  such  a  charge?" 

"Certainly,  if  she  does  not  voluntarily  quit  her 
false  position,  and,  accepting  the  protection  of  the 

358 


THE  FINGER  ON  THE  WALL 

man  whose  name  is  really  hers,  go  from  this  house 
at  once." 

At  this  alternative,  uttered  with  icy  deliberation, 
Mrs.  Packard  recoiled  with  a  sharp  cry ;  but  the 
mayor  thrust  a  sudden  sarcastic  query  at  his  op 
ponent  : 

"Which  name?  Steele  or  Brainard?  You  ac 
knowledged  both." 

"My  real  name  is  Brainard;  therefore,  it  is  also 
hers.  But  I  shall  be  content  if  she  will  take  my 
present  one  of  Steele.  More  than  that,  I  shall  be 
content  if  she  will  honestly  accept  from  my  hands 
a  place  of  refuge  where  I  swear  she  shall  remain 
unmolested  by  me  till  this  matter  can  be  legally  set 
tled.  I  do  not  wish  to  make  myself  hateful  to  her, 
for  I  anticipate  the  day  when  she  will  be  my  wife  in 
heart  as  she  is  now  in  law." 

"Never!" 

The  word  rang  out  in  true  womanly  revolt.     "I 

will  die  before  that  day  ever  comes  to  separate  me 

from  the  man  I  love  and  the  child  who  calls  me 

mother.     You  may  force  me  from  this  house,  you 

359 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

may  plunge  me  into  poverty,  into  contumely,  but 
you  shall  never  make  me  look  upon  myself  as  other 
than  the  wife  of  this  good  man,  whom  I  have 
wronged  but  will  never  disgrace." 

"Madam,"  declared  the  inflexible  secretary  with 
a  derisive  appreciation  which  bowed  her  once 
proud  head  upon  her  shamed  breast,  "you  are  all 
I  thought  you  when  I  took  you  from  Crabbe's  back- 
pantry  in  Boone  to  make  you  the  honor  and  glory 
of  a  life  which  I  knew  then,  as  well  as  I  do  now, 
would  not  long  run  in  obscure  channels." 

It  was  a  sarcasm  calculated  to  madden  the  proud 
man  who,  only  a  few  minutes  before,  had  desig 
nated  the  object  of  it  by  the  sacred  name  of  wife. 
But  beyond  a  hasty  glance  at  the  woman  it  had 
bowed  almost  to  the  ground,  the  mayor  gave  no 
evidence  of  feeling  either  its  force  or  assumption. 
Other  thoughts  were  in  his  mind  than  those  roused 
by  jealous  anger. 

"How  old  were  you  then?"  he  demanded  with 
alarming  incongruity. 

The  secretary  started.     He  answered,  however, 

calmly  enough: 

360 


THE  FINGER  ON  THE  WALL 

"I?  Seven  years  ago  I  was  twenty-five.  I  am 
thirty-two  now." 

"So  I  have  heard  you  say.  A  man  of  twenty- 
five  is  old  enough  to  have  made  a  record,  Mr. 
Steele — "  The  mayor's  tone  hardened,  so  did  his 
manner;  and  I  saw  why  he  had  been  such  a  power 
in  the  courts  before  he  took  up  politics  and  an  of 
fice.  "Mr.  Steele,  I  do  not  mean  you  to  disturb  my 
house  or  to  rob  me  of  my  wife.  What  was  your  life 
before  you  met  Olympia  Brewster?" 

A  pause,  the  slightest  in  the  world, — but  the 
keen  eye  of  the  astute  lawyer  noted  it,  and  his  tone 
grew  in  severity  and  assurance. 

"You  have  known  for  two  years  that  this  woman 
whom  you  called  yours  was  within  your  reach,  if 
not  under  your  very  eye,  and  you  forbore  to  claim 
her.  Has  this  delay  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
record  of  those  years  to  which  I  have  just  alluded?" 

Had  the  random  shot  told?     The  secretary's  eye 

did  not  falter,  nor  his  figure  lose  an  inch  of  its 

height,  yet  the  impression  made  by  his  look  and 

attitude  were  not  the  same;  the  fire  had  gone  out 

361 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

of  them ;  a  blight  had  struck  his  soul — the  flush  of 
his  triumph  was  gone. 

Mayor  Packard  was  merciless. 

"Only  two  considerations  could  hold  back  a  man 
like  you  from  urging  a  claim  he  regarded  as  a  sa 
cred  right;  the  fact  of  a  former  marriage  or  the 
remembrance  of  a  forfeited  citizenship — pardon 
me,  we  can  not  mince  matters  in  a  strait  like  this 
— which  would  delegalize  whatever  contract  you 
may  have  entered  into." 

Still  the  secretary's  eye  did  not  swerve,  though 
he  involuntarily  stretched  forth  his  hand  toward 
the  table  as  if  afraid  of  betraying  a  tremor  in  his 
rigidly  drawn-up  figure. 

"Was  there  the  impediment  of  a  former  mar 
riage  ?" 

No  answer  from  the  sternly  set  lips. 

"Or  was  it  that  you  once  served  a  term — a  very 
short  term,  cut  short  by  a  successful  attempt  at 
escape — in  a  Minnesota  prison?" 

"Insults !"  broke  from  those  set  lips  and  nothing 
more. 

362 


THE   FINGER   ON   THE   WALL 

"Mr.-  Stcele,  I  practised  law  in  that  state 
for  a  period  of  three  years.  All  the  records  of  the 
office  and  of  the  prison  register  are  open  to  me. 
Over  which  of  them  should  I  waste  my  time?" 

Then  the  tiger  broke  loose  in  the  man  who  from 
the  aggressor  had  become  the  attacked,  and  he 
cried : 

"I  shall  never  answer;  the  devil  has  whispered 
his  own  suggestions  in  your  ear ;  the  devil  and  noth 
ing  else." 

But  the  mayor,  satisfied  that  he  made  his  point, 
smiled  calmly,  saying: 

"No,  not  the  devil,  but  yourself.  You,  even  the 
you  of  seven  years  back,  would  not  have  lived  in 
any  country  town  if  necessity,  or  let  us  say,  safety, 
had  not  demanded  it.  You,  with  your  looks  and 
your  ambitions, — to  marry  at  twenty-five  a  girl 
from  the  kitchen!  any  girl,  even  if  she  had  the 
making  of  an  Olympia  Packard,  if  you  did  not 
know  that  it  was  in  your  power  to  shake  her  off 
when  you  got  ready  to  assert  yourself,  or  better 
prospects  offered?  The  cipher  and  the  desirabil- 
363 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ity  you  expressed  of  a  means  of  communication  un 
readable  save  by  you  two, — all  this  was  enough  to 
start  the  suspicion ;  your  own  manner  has  done  the 
rest.  Mr.  Steele,  you  are  both  a  villian  and  a  das 
tard,  and  have  no  right  in  law  to  this  woman. 
Contradict  me  if  you  dare." 

"I  dare,  but  will  not,"  was  the  violent  reply.  "I 
shall  not  give  you  even  that  satisfaction.  This 
woman  who  has  gone  through  the  ceremony  of  mar 
riage  with  both  of  us  shall  never  know  to  which  of 
us  she  is  the  legal  wife.  Perhaps  it  is  as  good  a 
revenge  as  the  other.  It  certainly  will  interfere 
as  much  writh  her  peace." 

"Oh,  oh,  not  that !  I  can  not  bear  that !"  leaped 
in  anguish  from  her  lips.  "I  am  a  pure  woman, — 
let  no  such  torture  be  inflicted  upon  me.  Speak! 
tell  the  truth  as  you  are  the  son  of  a  woman  you 
would  have  us  believe  honest." 

A  smile  then,  cold  but  alive  with  gloating  tri 
umph,  altered  the  straight  line  of  his  lips  for  an 
instant  as  he  advanced  toward  the  door.  "A  woman 
over  the  possession  of  whom  it  is  an  honor  to  quar- 

364 


I 


THE   FINGER   ON   THE   WALL 

rel!"  were  his  words  as  he  passed  the  mayor  with 
a  bow. 

I  looked  to  see  the  mayor  spring  and  grasp  him 
by  the  throat,  but  that  was  left  for  another  hand. 
As  the  secretary  bent  to  touch  the  door  it  suddenly 
flew  violently  open  and  Nixon,  quivering  in  every 
limb  and  with  his  face  afire,  sprang  in  and  seized 
upon  the  other  with  a  violence  of  passion  which 
would  have  been  deadly  had  there  been  any  strength 
behind  it. 

It  was  but  child's  play  for  so  strong  a  man  as 
Mr.  Steele  to  shake  off  so  futile  a  grasp,  and  he 
did  so  with  a  rasping  laugh.  But  the  next  mo 
ment  he  was  tottering,  blanched  and  helpless,  and 
while  struggling  to  right  himself  and  escape,  yield 
ed  more  and  more  to  a  sudden  weakness  sapping 
his  life-vigor,  till  he  fell  prone  and  apparently  life 
less  on  the  lounge  toward  which,  with  a  final  effort, 
he  had  thrown  himself. 

"Good !  Good !"  rang  thrilling  through  the  room, 
as  the  old  man  reeled  back  from  the  wall  against 
which  he  had  been  cast.  "God  has  finished  what 

365 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

these  old  arms  had  only  strength  enough  to  begin. 
He  is  dead  this  time,  and  it's  a  mercy!  Thank 
God,  Miss  Olympia !  thank  God  as  I  do  now  on  my 
knees!"  But  here  catching  the  mayor's  eye,  he 
faltered  to  his  feet  again,  saying  humbly  as  he 
crept  away : 

"I  couldn't  help  it,  your  Honor.  I  shouldn't 
have  been  listening  at  the  door;  but  I  have  loved 
Miss  Olympia,  as  we  used  to  call  her,  more  than 
anything  in  the  world  ever  since  she  came  to  make 
my  old  master's  house  a  place  of  sunshine,  and  all 
I'm  sorry  for  is  that  God  had  to  do  the  finishing 
which  twenty  years  ago  I  could  have  done  myself." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

"BITTER  AS  THE  GRAVE" 

But  Nixon  was  wrong.  Mr.  Steele  did  not  die 
• — not  this  time.  Cared  for  by  the  physician  who 
had  been  hastily  summoned,  he  slowly  but  surely 
revived  and  by  midnight  was  able  to  leave  the  house. 
As  he  passed  the  mayor  on  his  way  out,  I  heard 
Mr.  Packard  say : 

"I  shall  leave  the  house  myself  in  a  few  minutes. 
I  do  not  mean  that  your  disaffection  shall  ruin  my 
campaign  any  more  than  I  mean  to  leave  a  stone 
unturned  to  substantiate  my  accusation  that  you 
had  no  right  to  marry  and  possess  legal  claims  over 
the  woman  whose  happiness  you  have  endeavored 
to  wreck.  If  you  are  wise  you  will  put  no  further 
hindrance  in  my  way." 

I  heard  no  answer,  for  at  that  instant  a  figure 
appeared  in  the  open  door  which  distracted  all  our 
attention.  Miss  Thankful,  never  an  early  sleeper 

367 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

and  much  given,  as  we  know,  to  looking  out  of  her 
window,  had  evidently  caught  the  note  of  disaster 
from  the  coming  and  going  of  the  doctor.  She 
had  run  in  from  next  door  and  now  stood  panting 
in  the  open  doorway  face  to  face  with  Mr.  Steele, 
with  her  two  hands  held  out,  in  one  of  which,  re 
markable  as  it  seems  to  relate,  I  saw  the  package 
of  bonds  which  I  had  been  fortunate  enough  to 
find  for  her. 

The  meeting  seemed  to  paralyze  both;  her  face 
which  had  been  full  of  tremulous  feeling  blanched 
and  hardened,  while  he,  stopped  in  some  speech  or 
final  effort  he  was  about  to  make,  yielded  to  the 
natural  brutality  which  underlay  his  polished  ex 
terior,  and,  in  an  access  of  rage  which  almost  laid 
him  prostrate  again,  lifted  his  arm  and  struck  her 
out  of  his  path.  As  she  reeled  to  one  side  the  bonds 
flew  from  her  hand  and  lay  at  his  feet ;  but  he  saw 
nothing;  he  was  already  half-way  down  the  walk 
and  in  another  moment  the  bang  of  his  carriage 
door  announced  his  departure. 

The  old  lady,  muttering  words  I  could  not  hear, 

368 


"BITTER  AS  THE  GRAVE" 

stared  mute  and  stricken  at  the  bonds  which  the 
mayor  had  hastened  to  lift  and  place  in  her  hands. 

Pitying  her  and  anxious  to  relieve  him  from  the 
embarrassment  of  her  presence  when  his  own  mind 
and  heart  were  full  of  misery,  I  rushed  down  to  her 
side  and  endeavored  to  lead  her  away.  She  yielded 
patiently  enough  to  my  efforts,  but,  as  she  turned 
away,  she  cast  one  look  at  the  mayor  and  with  the 
tears  rolling  down  her  long  and  hollow  cheeks  mur 
mured  in  horror  and  amaze: 

"He  struck  me!" 

The  flash  in  Mayor  Packard's  eye  showed  sym 
pathy,  but  the  demands  of  the  moment  were  too 
great  for  him  to  give  to  those  pathetic  words  the 
full  significance  which  I  suddenly  suspected  them 
to  hold.  As  I  led  her  tottering  figure  down  the 
step  and  turned  toward  her  door  I  said  gently: 

"Who  was  the  man?  Who  was  it  that  struck 
you?" 

She  answered  quickly  and  with  broken-hearted 
emphasis : 

"My  nephew !  my  sister's  son,  and  I  had  come 

369 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

to  give  him  all  our  money.  We  have  waited  three 
days  for  him  to  come  to  us.  We  thought  he  would 
when  he  knew  the  bonds  had  been  found,  but  he 
never  came  near,  never  gave  us  a  chance  to  enrich 
him ;  and  when  I  heard  he  was  ill  and  saw  the  car 
riage  which  had  come  to  take  him  away,  we  could 
not  stand  it  another  minute  and  so  I  ran  out  and — 
and  he  struck  me !  looked  in  my  face  and  struck 
me!" 

I  folded  her  in  my  arms,  there  and  then  at  the 
foot  of  her  own  doorstep,  and  when  I  felt  her  heart 
beating  on  mine,  I  whispered: 

"Bless  God  for  it!  He  has  a  hard  and  cruel 
heart,  and  would  make  no  good  use  of  this  money. 
Live  to  spend  it  as  your  brother  desired,  to  make 
over  the  old  house  and  reinstate  the  old  name.  He 
would  not  have  wished  it  wasted  on  one  who  must 
have  done  you  cruel  wrong,  since  he  has  lived  so 
many  days  beside  you  without  showing  his  interest 
in  you  or  even  acknowledging  your  relationship." 

"There  were  reasons,"  she  protested,  gently  with 
drawing  herself,  but  holding  me  for  a  minute  to  her 
370 


"BITTER  AS  THE  GRAVE" 

side.  "He  has  had  great  fortune — is  a  man  of  im 
portance  now — we  did  not  wish  to  interfere  with 
his  career.  It  was  only  after  the  money  was  found 
that  we  felt  he  should  come.  We  should  not  have 
asked  him  to  take  back  his  old  name,  we  should 
simply  have  given  him  what  he  thought  best  to 
take  and  been  so  happy  and  proud  to  see  him.  He 
is  so  handsome  and  fortunate  that  we  should  not 
have  begrudged  it,  if  he  had  taken  it  all.  But  he 
struck  me !  he  struck  me !  He  will  never  get  a  dol 
lar  now." 

Relieved,  for  the  natural  good  sense  of  the  wo 
man  was  reasserting  itself,  I  gave  her  hands  a 
squeeze  and  quickly  ran  back  to  where  the  mayor 
was  holding  the  door  for  me. 

"She  is  all  right  now,"  I  remarked,  as  I  slid  by 
him  up-stairs ;  and  that  was  all  I  said.  The  rest 
must  wait  a  more  auspicious  moment — the  moment 
when  he  really  would  have  time  to  take  up  the 
gage  which  Mr.  Steele  had  thrown  down  to  him  in 
his  final  words. 

I  was  not  a  witness  to  the  parting  interview  be- 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

tween  Mayor  Packard  and  his  wife;  I  had  stolen 
into  the  nursery  for  a  look  at  the  little  one.  I 
found  her  sleeping  sweetly,  with  one  chubby  hand 
under  her  rounded  cheek.  Thus  had  she  lain  and 
thus  had  she  slept  during  all  those  dreadful  min 
utes,  when  her  future  hung  trembling  in  the  bal 
ance. 


372 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


I  was  too  much  overwhelmed  by  all  these  events 
to  close  my  eyes  that  night.  The  revelation  of 
Mr.  Steele's  further  duplicity,  coming  so  imme 
diately  upon  the  first,  roused  fresh  surmises  and 
awakened  thoughts  which  soon  set  my  wits  working 
in  a  direction  as  new  as  it  was  unexpected.  I  had 
believed  my  work  over  in  this  house,  but  as  I  re 
called  all  the  occurrences  of  the  evening  and  turned 
the  situation,  as  it  now  confronted  me,  over  and 
over  in  my  mind,  I  felt;  that  it  had  just  begun. 
There  must  be  something  in  this  latest  develop 
ment  to  help  us  in  the  struggle  which  lay  before 
us.  The  rage  which  sprang  up  in  him  as  he  con 
fronted  his  old  aunt  at  this  moment  of  his  triumph 
ant  revenge  argued  a  weakness  in  his  armor  which 
it  might  yet  be  my  part  to  discover  and  reveal.  I 
knew  Mrs.  Packard  well  enough  to  realize  that 
373 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

the  serenity  into  which  she  had  fallen  was  a  ficti 
tious  serenity,  and  must  remain  so  as  long  as  any 
doubt  remained  of  the  legality  of  the  tie  uniting 
her  to  this  handsome  fiend.  Were  the  means  sug 
gested  by  the  mayor  of  promising  enough  charac 
ter  to  accomplish  the  looked-for  end? 

I  remembered  the  man's  eyes  as  the  mayor  let  fall 
his  word  of  powerful  threat,  and  doubted  it.  Once 
recovered  from  the  indisposition  which  now  weak 
ened  him,  he  would  find  means  to  thwart  any  at 
tempts  made  by  Mayor  Packard  to  undermine  the 
position  he  had  taken  as  the  legal  husband  of  Olym- 
pia — sufficiently  so,  at  least,  to  hinder  happiness 
between  the  pair  whose  wedded  life  he  not  only 
envied  but  was  determined  to  break  up,  unless  some 
flaw  in  his  past  could  be  discovered  through  Miss 
Quinlan — the  aunt  whose  goodness  he  had  slighted 
and  who  now  seemed  to  be  in  a  frame  of  mind  to 
help  our  cause  if  its  pitiful  aspects  were  once  pre 
sented  to  her.  I  resolved  to  present  the  case  with 
out  delay.  Morning  came  at  last,  and  I  refreshed 
myself  as  well  as  I  could,  and,  after  a  short  visit 
374 


A  CHILD'S  PLAYTHINGS 

to  Mrs.  Packard's  bedside  during  which  my  pur 
pose  grew  with  every  moment  I  gazed  down  on  her 
brave  but  pitiful  face,  put  on  my  hat  arid  jacket 
and  went  next  door. 

I  found  the  two  old  ladies  seated  in  their  state 
apartment  making  calculations.  At  sight  of  my 
face  they  both  rose  and  the  "O  my  dear"  from  Miss 
Charity  and  the  "God  bless  you,  child,"  from  Miss 
Thankful  showed  that  both  hearts  were  yet  warm. 
Gradually  I  introduced  the  topic  of  their  nephew ; 
gradually  I  approached  the  vital  question  of  the 
disgrace. 

The  result  upset  all  my  growing  hopes.  He  had 
never  told  them  just  what  the  disgrace  was.  They 
really  knew  nothing  about  his  life  after  his  early 
boyhood.  He  had  come  home  that  one  time  when 
fortune  so  suddenly  smiled  upon  them  and  they 
thought  then  that  he  would  tell  them  something; 
but  the  disappointment  which  had  followed  effectu 
ally  closed  his  lips,  and  he  went  away  after  a  few 
days  of  fruitless  search,  not  to  approach  them 
again  till  just  before  he  took  up  the  position  of 
375 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

secretary  to  their  great  neighbor.  Then  he  paid 
them  one  short  and  peremptory  visit,  during  which 
he  was  able  to  impress  upon  them  his  importance, 
his  reasons  for  changing  his  name,  which  they 
could  not  now  remember,  and  the  great  necessity 
which  this  made  for  them  not  to  come  near  him  as 
their  nephew.  They  had  tried  to  do  what  he  asked, 
but  it  had  been  hard. 

"Charity,"  Miss  Thankful  proceeded  to  bewail 
with  a  forgetfulness  of  her  own  share  in  the  mat 
ter,  "had  not  been  able  to  keep  her  eyes  long  off 
the  house  which  held,  as  she  supposed,  our  double 
treasure." 

So  this  was  all !  Nothing  to  aid  me ;  nothing  to 
aid  Mayor  Packard. 

Rising  in  my  disappointment,  I  prepared  to 
leave.  I  had  sufficient  self-control  and  I  hope  good 
feeling  not  to  add  to  their  distress  at  this  time 
by  any  unnecessary  revelations  of  a  past  they  were 
ignorant  of,  or  the  part  this  unhappy  nephew  of 
theirs  had  played  and  still  promised  to  play  in  the 
lives  of  their  immediate  neighbors. 
376 


A  CHILD'S  PLAYTHINGS 

Miss  Thankful  squeezed  my  hand  and  Miss  Char 
ity  gave  me  a  kiss ;  then  as  she  saw  her  sister  look 
ing  aside,  whispered  in  my  ear : 

"I  want  to  show  you  something,  all  of  Johnnie's 
little  toys  and  the  keepsakes  he  sent  us  when  he 
was  a  good  boy  and  loved  his  aunts.  You  will  not 
think  so  badly  of  him  then." 

I  let  Miss  Charity  lead  me  away.  A  drawer  held 
all  these  treasures.  I  looked  and  felt  to  a  degree 
the  pathos  of  the  scene;  but  did  not  give  special 
attention  to  what  she  thrust  under  my  eyes  till  she 
gave  me  a  little  old  letter  to  read,  soiled  and  torn 
with  the  handling  of  many  years  and  signed  John 
Silverthorn  Brainard.  Then  something  in  me  woke 
and  I  stared  at  this  signature,  growing  more  and 
more  excited  as  I  realized  that  this  was  not  the  first 
time  I  had  seen  it,  that  somewhere  and  in  circum 
stances  which  brought  a  nameless  thrill  I  had  looked 

upon  it  before  and  that — it  was  not  one  remem- 
!  i  M.I  MM  j  ' 

brance  but  many  which  came  to  me.    What  the  spo 
ken  name  had  not  recalled  came  at  the  sight  of  this 
written  one.    Bess !  there  was  her  long  and  contin- 
377 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

ued  watch  over  the  house  once  entered  by  her  on  any 
and  every  pretext,  but  now  shunned  by  her  with  a 
secret  terror  which  could  not  disguise  her  longing 
and  its  secret  attraction;  her  certificate  of  mar 
riage  ;  the  name  on  this  certificate — the  very  one  I 
was  now  staring  at — John  Silverthorn  Brainard! 
Had  I  struck  an  invaluable  clue?  Had  I,  through 
the  weakness  and  doting  fondness  of  this  poor  wo 
man,  come  upon  the  one  link  which  would  yet  lead 
us  to  identify  this  hollow-hearted,  false  and  most 
vindictive  man  of  great  affairs  with  the  wandering 
and  worthless  husband  of  the  nondescript  Bess, 
whose  hand  I  had  touched  and  whose  errand  I  had 
done,  little  realizing  its  purport  or  the  influence  it 
would  have  upon  our  lives  ?  I  dared  not  believe  my 
self  so  fortunate;  it  was  much  too  like  a  fairy 
dream  for  me  to  rely  on  it  for  a  moment;  yet  the 
possibility  was  enough  to  rouse  me  to  renewed  ef 
fort.  After  we  had  returned  to  Miss  Thankful's 
side,  I  asked  her,  with  an  apology  for  my  inex 
haustible  curiosity,  if  she  still  felt  afraid  of  the 
thread  and  needle  woman  across  the  way. 
37* 


A  CHILD'S  PLAYTHINGS 

The  answer  was  a  little  sharp. 

"It  is  Charity  who  is  afraid  of  her,"  said  she. 
She  had  evidently  forgotten  her  own  extravagant 
words  to  me  on  this  subject.  "Charity  is  timid ;  she 
thinks  because  this  woman  once  hung  over  our 
brother,  night  and  day,  that  she  knew  about  this 
money  and  had  persuaded  herself  that  she  has 
some  right  to  it.  Charity  is  sometimes  mistaken, 
but  she  has  some  reason,  if  it  is  inadequate,  for  this 
notion  of  hers.  That  woman,  since  her  dismissal 
after  my  brother's  death,  has  never  really  quit  this 
neighborhood.  She  worked  next  door  in  any  ca 
pacity  she  could,  whenever  any  of  the  tenants  would 
take  her ;  and  when  they  would  not,  sewed  or  served 
in  the  houses  near  by  till  finally  she  set  up  a  shop 
Directly  opposite  its  very  door.  But  she'll  never 
get  these  bonds ;  we  shall  pay  her  what  is  her  due, 
but  she'll  never  get  any  more." 

"That  would  make  her  out  a  thief,"  I  cried, 
"or — "  but  I  thought  better  of  uttering  what  was 
in  my  mind.  Instead  I  asked  how  they  first  came  to 
hear  of  her. 

379 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

Miss  Charity  showed  some  flustration  at  this  and 
cast  her  sister  an  appealing  look ;  but  Miss  Thank 
ful,  eying  her  with  some  severity,  answered  me 
with  becoming  candor: 

"She  was  a  lodger  in  this  house.  We  kept  a  few 
lodgers  in  those  days — be  still,  Charity!  Just 
thank  God  those  days  are  over." 

"A  lodger?"  I  repeated.  "Did  she  ever  tell  you 
where  she  came  from?" 

"Yes,  she  mentioned  the  place, — it  was  some  town 
farther  west.  That  was  when  we  were  in  such 
trouble  about  our  brother  and  how  we  should  care 
for  him.  She  could  nurse  him,  she  said,  and  in 
deed  seemed  very  eager  to  do  so,  and  we  were  glad 
to  let  her, — very  glad,  till  my  brother  showed  such 
fear  of  her  and  of  what  she  might  do  if  she  once 
got  hold  of  his  wallet." 

"You  possibly  did  her  injustice,"  I  said.  "A  sick 
man's  fancies  are  not  always  to  be  relied  on.  What 
did  your  nephew  think  of  her?  Did  he  share  your 
distrust  of  her?" 

"John?     Oh,  yes,  I  believe  so.     Why  do  we  al- 


A  CHILD'S  PLAYTHINGS 

ways  come  back  to  the  subject  of  John?  I  want 
to  forget  him ;  I  mean  to  forget  him ;  I  mean  that 
Charity  shall  forget  him." 

"Let  us  begin  then  from  this  moment,"  I  smiled ; 
then  quickly :  "You  knew  that  Bess  was  a  married 
woman  ?" 

"No,  we  knew  nothing  about  her." 

"Not  even  the  name  she  went  by  ?" 

"Oh,  that  was  Brown." 

"Brown,"  I  muttered,  turning  for  a  second  time 
to  go.  "You  must  think  me  inquisitive,  but  if  I 
had  not  been,"  I  added  with  a  merry  laugh,  "I 
should  never  have  found  your  bonds  for  you." 
Pressing  both  their  hands  in  mine  I  ran  hastily  out 
of  the  room. 

At  once  I  crossed  the  street  to  Bess'  little  shop. 


381 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

RESTITUTION 

"Bess,  why  are  you  so  white?  What  has  hap 
pened  to  you  in  the  last  twenty -four  hours?  Have 
you  heard  from  him?19 

"No,  no;  I'm  all  right."  But  her  eyes,  hunted 
and  wandering,  belied  her  words. 

I  drew  her  hands  down  into  mine  across  the 
table  lying  between  us. 

"I  want  to  help  you,"  I  whispered;  "I  think  I 
can.  Something  has  happened  which  gives  me 
great  hope ;  only  do  me  a  favor  first ;  show  me,  as 
you  promised,  the  papers  which  I  dug  out  for  you." 

A  smile,  more  bitter  than  any  tear,  made  her  face 
look  very  hard  for  an  instant,  then  she  quietly  led 
the  way  into  the  small  room  at  the  back.  When  we 
were  quite  alone,  she  faced  me  again  and  putting 
her  hand  to  her  breast  took  out  the  much  creased, 
much  crumpled  bit  of  paper  which  was  her  only 
link  to  youth,  to  her  life,  and  to  her  love« 

382 


RESTITUTION 

"This  is  all  that  will  interest  you,"  said  she,  her 
eyes  brimming  in  spite  of  herself.  "It  is  my  mar 
riage  certificate.  The  one  thing  that  proves  me 
an  honest  woman  and  the  equal  of — "  she  paused, 
biting  back  her  words  and  saying  instead — "of 
any  one  I  see.  My  husband  was  a  gentleman." 

It  was  with  trembling  hands  I  unfolded  the  worn 
sheet.  Somehow  the  tragedy  of  the  lives  my  own 
had  touched  so  nearly  for  the  last  few  days  had 
become  an  essential  part  of  me. 

"John  Silverthorn  Brainard,"  I  read,  the  name 
identical  with  the  one  I  had  just  seen  as  the  early 
signature  of  the  man  who  claimed  a  husband's 
rights  over  Mrs.  Packard.  The  date — with  what 
anxiety  I  looked  at  it ! — preceded  by  two  years  that 
of  the  time  he  united  himself  to  Olympia  Brewster. 
No  proof  of  the  utter  falsity  of  his  dishonorable 
claim  could  be  more  complete.  As  I  folded  up  the 
paper  and  handed  it  back,  Bess  noted  the  change 
which  had  come  to  me.  Panting  with  excitement 
she  cried: 

"You  look  happy,  happy !  You  know  something 

383 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

you  have  not  told  me.  What?  what?  I'm  suffo 
cating,  mad  to  know ;  speak — speak — " 

"Your  husband  is  a  man  not  unknown  to  any  of 
us.  You  have  seen  him  constantly.  He  is — " 

"Yes,  yes;  did  he  tell  you  himself?  Has  he 
done  me  so  much  justice?  Oh,  say  that  his  heart 
has  softened  at  last;  that  he  is  ready  to  recognize 
me;  that  I  have  not  got  to  find  those  bonds — but 
you  do  not  know  about  the  bonds — nobody  does.  I 
shouldn't  have  spoken ;  he  would  be  angry  if  he 
knew.  Angry?  and  I  have  suffered  so  much  from 
his  anger !  He  is  not  a  gentle  man." 

How  differently  she  said  this  from  the  gentle 
man  of  a  few  minutes  back ! 

"But  he  doesn't  know  that  I  am  here,"  she  burst 
out  in  another  instant,  as  I  hunted  for  some  word 
to  say.  "He  would  kill  me  if  he  did ;  he  once 
swore  that  he  would  kill  me  if  I  ever  approached 
him  or  put  in  any  claim  to  him  till  he  was  ready  to 
own  me  for  his  wife  and  give  me  the  place  that  is 
due  me.  Don't  tell  me  that  I  have  betrayed  my 
self,  I've  been  so  careful;  kept  myself  so  entirely 
384 


RESTITUTION 

out  of  his  eyes,  even  last  night  when  I  saw  the 
doctor  go  in  and  felt  that  it  was  for  him,  and  pic 
tured  him  to  myself  as  dying  without  a  word  from 
me  or  a  look  to  help  me  bear  the  pain.  He  was 
ill,  wasn't  he? — but  he  got  better.  I  saw  him  come 
out,  very  feeble  and  uncertain.  Not  like  him 
self,  not  like  the  strong  and  too,  too  handsome  man 
who  has  wrung  my  heart  in  his  hand  of  steel, — 
wrung  it  and  thrown  it  away." 

Sobs  shook  her  and  she  stopped  from  lack  of 
power  to  utter  either  her  terror  or  her  grief.  But 
she  looked  the  questions  she  could  no  longer  put, 
and  compassionating  her  misery,  I  gently  said : 

"Your  love  has  been  fixed  upon  a  very  unstable 
heart;  but  you  have  rights  which  must  yet  insure 
you  his  support.  There  is  some  one  who  will  pro 
tect  these  rights  and  protect  you  in  your  efforts 
to  substantiate  them." 

"His  aunt,"  she  put  in,  shaking  her  head.  "She 
can  do  nothing,  unless — "  Her  excitement  became 
abnormal.  "Have  they  found  the  money?"  she 
shrieked ;  "have  they  —  have  they  found  the 
money  ?" 

385 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

I  could  not  deceive  her;  she  had  seen  it  in  my 
eye. 

"And  they  will—" 

"Hardly,"  I  whispered.  "  He  has  displeased 
them ;  they  can  not  be  generous  to  him  now." 

Her  hopes  sank  as  if  the  very  basis  of  her  life 
had  been  taken  away. 

"It  was  my  only  hope,"  she  murmured.  "With 
that  money  in  my  hand — some,  any  of  it,  I  could 
have  dared  his  frown  and  won  in  a  little  while  his 
good  will,  but  now —  I  can  only  anticipate  rebuff. 
There  is  nothing  for  me  to  hope  for  now.  I  must 
continue  to  be  Bess,  the  thread  and  needle  woman." 

"I  did  not  say  that  the  one  to  reinstate  you  was 
Miss  Quinlan." 

"Who  then?  who  then?" 

"Mayor  Packard." 

And  then  I  had  to  tell  her. 

We  all  know  the  results  of  the  election  by  which 

Governor  Packard  holds  his  seat,  but  few  persons 

outside   of  those  mentioned  in  this  history   know 

why  the  event  of  his  home-coming  from  a  trip  he 

3B6 


RESTITUTION 

made  to  Minnesota  brought  a  brighter  and  more 
lasting  light  into  his  wife's  eyes  than  the  news  of 
his  astonishing  political  triumph. 

He  had  substantiated  facts  by  which  Mr.  Steele's 
claims  upon  Mrs.  Packard  were  annulled  and  Bess 
restored  to  her  rights,  if  not  to  her  false  husband's 
heart  and  affections.  There  are  times,  though, 
when  I  Ho  not  even  despair  of  the  latter ;  constant 
illness  is  producing  a  perceptible  change  in  the 
man,  and  it  seemed  to  me,  from  what  Mrs.  John 
Brainard  told  me  one  day  after  she  had  been  able, 
through  the  kindness  of  the  Misses  Quinlan,  to 
place  the  amount  of  one  of  the  bonds  in  his  hands, 
that  his  eyes  were  beginning  to  learn  their  true 
lesson  and  that  he  would  yet  find  charm  in  his  long 
neglected  wife. 

It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  with  hope 
and  the  advantages  of  dress  with  which  the  Misses 
Quinlan  now  took  pleasure  in  supplying  her,  she 
was  gradually  becoming  an  unusually  fine  woman. 

I  remained  with  Mrs.  Packard  till  they  left  town 
for  the  capital;  remained  to  enjoy  to  the  full  the 

387 


THE  MAYOR'S  WIFE 

joy  of  these  reunited  hearts,  and  to  receive  the  sub 
stantial  reward  which  they  insisted  on  bestowing 
upon  me.  One  of  the  tasks  with  which  I  whiled 
away  the  many  hours  in  which  I  found  myself  alone 
was  the  understanding  and  proper  mastery  of  the 
cipher  which  had  played  such  a  part  in  the  evolu 
tion  of  the  life-drama  enacted  before  my  eyes. 

It  was  very  simple.  With  the  following  dia 
gram  as  a  key  and  a  single  hint  as  to  its  manage 
ment,  you  will  at  once  comprehend  its  apparent 
intricacies : 


AB 


GH 


CDEF 


MNOPQR 


1JKL 


The  dot  designated  that  the  letter  used  was  the  second 
in  the  indicated  division. 

The  hint  to  which  I  allude  is  this.  With  every 
other  word  the  paper  is  turned  in  the  hands  toward 
the  left.  This  alters  the  shape  and  direction  of  the 


RESTITUTION 

angle  or  part  of  square  symbolizing  the  several  let 
ters,  and  creates  the  confusion  which  interfered 
with  my;  solution  of  its  mysteries  the  night  I  sub 
jected  it,  with  such  unsatisfactory  results,  to  the 
tests  which  had  elucidated  the  cryptogram  in  The 
Gold  Bug. 


THJE    END 


389 


_100m-7,'39(402s> 


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